Honor and Valor
by Porter-Fuzz1218
Summary: I was the youngest Ranger ever on record until the King claimed me as his son. I became a prince in a country at the edge of war. I was ambushed by my enemies and thrust into an unknown world, yours. The only way back is to go to the Rim of Heaven. My country has been thrown into war and chaos now and I must do all that I can to help end the war. Rated M for Language and Violence
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

A Longtime Coming

Here in my world there are a lot of things that you wouldn't call normal. We have mythical creatures of all sorts and advanced technology to help us through our daily lives, mainly for medical purposes. The most interesting thing of all though has to be the fact that here nobody makes weapons besides blacksmiths, and I mean traditional blacksmiths at that. When wars break out, and they do happen but are rare, we do not fight a mechanized warfare. We here are considered guardians of a sort for your world, ever watchful for the fantastic creatures that have been placed in harms way. We send little prompts to get them out of difficult situations through dreams, because dreams are a pathway into many dimensions and other walks of life. The most recent one that I can think of was when I was ten years old and a silver dragon clan in Europe was under a threat of drowning by the locals. We placed the idea that they should seek refuge in the Rim of Heaven, but little did we know that that seed would take root and actually work. The ones that planted that seed were pleasantly surprised when it worked, but they were not pleased when the Golden One was brought to the doorsteps with the Dragon Rider and his company. The silver dragon was able to defeat the Golden One in the end, but the Elders believed that they would have to intervene.

You see, our world is connected to yours in seven places; the Rim of Heaven, Mount Rushmore, the Great Sphinx, Tower of London, Stonehenge, the Kremlin, and the Washington Monument. We can enter your world at anytime we wish, but we must first find the doorways that lead into your world. You may enter our world at anytime as well, but it is highly unlikely due to the fact that most of those places where we come out of are closed off to tourists. First I need to inform you on a few things before I truly begin this tale of how I met your world for the first time. The world that we live in we do call it Earth as you call yours Earth. We have three continents instead of your seven. The biggest continent is Garrasol. Garrasol is split into three countries; Mason, home of the Warreans, Gaura, home of the Gaurans, and Samara, home of the Samarians. I will delve into detail about the countries later, but I am from Mason. The other two continents lie to the East and the West of Garrasol. To the East is Harad, a continent and a country. The Harads are a warlike race that sometimes raids the eastern coast of Garrasol, so the Gaurans usually have to take care of them. To the West is a peaceful continent called Transilvaq. They are a slightly bigger continent than Harad, and have two countries, Novaz and Haraz.

My tale really begins when I was seven years old; I was selected from my village to become a Ranger for the King's army. Training started young in order for the mind to absorb more knowledge in less amount of time. Part of the reason I was selected was because I was a bastard child, no one knew who my father was except for my mother and she never told a soul. I knew nothing about the ways of the world and I was carted off to the training facility the next morning without even a chance to say goodbye to the only person in my life that had cared for me. The Ranger's had their own place in the Western Ocean on an island about twenty miles off of the coast. The island was called Agra and the facility was called Fort Thunderhead. Being seven at the time, I was a nervous wreck when I first met my mentor. This is where the story truly starts.

There were twelve kids selected for this years initiates. We were all six to seven years of age, and all of us were bastards. I was placed in the middle of the line and I looked around nervously. All twelve of us couldn't see the men who had brought us here because they wore masks and cloaks that concealed their body from view. It was frightening for a little kid to not be able to know what was going on. A man walked into the large room that we had all been ushered into and I looked up at him. He was in his late thirties to early forties, had a round head, short brown hair with touches of grey here and there, and he had a scar that spanned his entire face from his right temple to his left jaw bone. "Welcome to Agra," the man said in a gravelly tone. "You all were chosen because you have shown exceptional talent to become great members of the King's army." The man paused and looked at all twelve of us. I'm sure that all of our faces were frightened and said that we wanted to go back home. "Agra will be your home for as long as it takes to complete your training, it may take fifteen years, it may take twenty years, who knows? How long it takes is up to you and your mentor. You will be called into the room one by one and a mentor will choose you to take as his apprentice. There are eleven mentors, so one of you will not get chosen. Jaran McCotter, you're up first."

The kid at the front of the line stiffened and followed the man into the room. After what seemed like an eternity, the man reemerged from the room and pointed at the next kid in line, and the process repeated until I was finally called. I swallowed and walked towards the stranger and into the room. I looked up at all of the grave faces surrounding me in their dresses of war and I immediately felt afraid. There was a desk with a chair and I was instructed to sit in the chair. Once I had done that I took a look and counted in my head all of the men that were present in the room. I counted seven before the man that led me in here left through a side door, leaving six. A man with jet-black hair and a goatee stepped forward. He had a black leather jerkin and a sword with him. "What is your name?" he asked me kindly. His voice was deep and sounded like a man in his early thirties.

"Lu—uuke Ppppoorter." I stammered.

The man chuckled kindly and said gently, "There is no need to be afraid of us, little one. We are here to teach you and to prepare you for your duty to this country."

"I…I understand, sir." I said a bit more confidently.

"How old are you?" the man asked.

"Seven years old, sir."

"Do you know why you were brought here?" another man asked in a rough voice. I didn't think that that was his tone, but that was how his voice sounded permanently.

"The man from earlier said it was because we showed promise…" I trailed off.

"But you don't really think that's why you're here, do you?" the other man asked.

I shook my head. "No, sir," I said. "I believe that I was brought here because I'm a bastard."

The room erupted in laughter and I was confused. Had I said something wrong? The man with the black hair looked at me and said, "You were brought here because you happen to show excellent marksmanship, strength, agility, and speed for a boy your size."

I blinked a couple of times taking this all in, then asked cautiously, "So, it isn't because I'm a bastard?"

"Little one, you just happen to be a bastard, it's a mere coincidence." the rough man said.

"Qi vendi oder veen?" a man in his fifties asked. I looked over at him not recognizing the language that he spoke. The man had a ginger beard that went down to his stomach and it was lined with grey, a bald head, and a sword hilt that stuck out from behind his left shoulder blade.

"E vendi veen oder." the man that had the black hair said. Everyone looked at him shocked but nodded. The man looked at me and said, "Come on kid, let's get you to your quarters."

I stood up from the chair and followed the man out of the room. He led me down the stone corridor and to a large chamber. There was a large bed, dresser, and a lot of empty racks in the room. "Is this all mine?" I asked.

"It is." the man answered.

"May I ask what were you saying back in the other room?"

"Mentor Gregor asked who will mentor the kid, I took up the challenge and said that I would mentor you." the man said.

"So you're my mentor?" I asked.

"That is correct."

"What is your name?" I asked.

"You will call me Mentor Callas," he said looking down at me. "You on the other hand cannot go around by Luke Porter anymore, you will need an alias to go by in order to protect the ones that you love. I have a feeling that you're a special person, a very special person. I can see you graduating faster than anyone has actually seen before. What do you think that you should be called?"

I thought for a little while. All my seven years I had been called Luke, except for once due to my speed. An elder in my village had called me a jayko once because I had reminded her of one. A jayko is a hawk that hunts its prey by dive-bombing it and is a blue colored bird. When the bird dive-bombs all you can see is a streak of blue. The elder had commented that when she saw me move all she could see was the streak of my black hair and clothes. I looked up at my new mentor and said, "Jayko. Call me Jayko."

_Ten Years Later_

The day that I had been waiting for for ten years had finally arrived, the day of my graduation! I was the youngest recorded Ranger set to graduate from this place with every test passed and every skill learned that a successful Ranger needed to know. I was sitting on my bed in my chambers waiting for the hour to pass so that I could go to the Hall and officially graduate. I looked at the mirror across from my bed and my reflection looked back at me. I had changed a lot in ten years, I barely recognized myself from the timid seven year old that had been brought here to train as a Ranger. My medium length black hair was combed to the right, my blue eyes had gold flecks in them (no one knew where those came from and I never found the answer in the Ranger's archives either), and my jaw line was prominent and strong. Over the years all fat had been stripped from my body and replaced with lean muscle. I probably weighed close to two hundred and ten pounds of muscle and was six foot two inches in height. My forearms were thick with muscle from learning how to wield a sword. My biceps and shoulder muscles were thick because of countless hours drilling with a longbow. I had become an expert swordsman and bowsman in a short amount of time. The thing that I really excelled in though was tactics, I could out think some of the top Rangers that were here at Fort Thunderhead which was part of the reason why the King wanted them to graduate me. The other part was he reviewed my portfolio and found it beyond adequate for what he wanted in a Ranger and deemed me fit for active service. There was a knock at my oak door and I said, "Come in, it's open."

The door opened and Mentor Callas walked in. His once prominent black hair was now showing signs of aging. He had wrinkles showing up underneath his eyes and his goatee was fletched with grey as well. "It's time to go, Jayko." my Mentor said.

"That was quick." I remarked.

"The Council is in a hurry today," Mentor Callas remarked. "There have been rumors spreading that a war is brewing in the east."

I stood up off of my bed and followed my Mentor out of my room and down the corridor to the room that I had been chosen in. As we were walking there I looked at him and said, "That can't be good."

Mentor Callas shook his head and said, "No, it isn't. The King is here as well and he never shows up for graduations."

That really got my attention. "King Marek is going to be here?" I asked.

"Didn't I just say that, boy?" Mentor Callas say somewhat irritated.

"But, but why?" I asked.

"If I knew, I wouldn't tell you," my Mentor said looking at me sternly. "You may be graduating to become a full fledged Ranger, but it isn't your business to know things that don't concern you."

"Isn't that part of our job description?" I countered.

Mentor Callas chuckled and stopped at the door that led into the room that I was supposed to enter. "You're right there, Jayko." he said.

"Aren't you coming in with me?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, boy, but it isn't my place to be in there with you."

I nodded and held out my right hand. Mentor Callas grasped it and we shook hands. "Thank you for taking me as your apprentice." I said.

"No problem, Jayko," Mentor Callas said. "I knew you were a special kid, I didn't know you were this special. Since I am no longer your mentor, you may call me Callas."

I lowered my head in a bow and then looked up at my former Mentor. "Again, thank you for teaching me." I said.

"Just remember, do everything that I taught you and use those talents of yours." Callas said.

"I will, sir." I promised. I turned from him and entered the room.

The entire Council was there. They consisted of the eldest living Rangers and had the most experience in the field. They were all sitting at a U shaped table and in the middle of the table was a man that looked to be in his early thirties. The man had black hair, a black goatee, was dressed in a golden tunic, and on top of his head was a golden crown. I assumed that this was King Marek and I was surprised at his age. I approached the table and knelt in front of the Council and the King. "Rise." Someone said in a rich, kind, voice, yet full of authority. I stood up and found the King's eyes fixated on me. It was a bit nerve racking to have the most powerful man in Mason staring at you.

"Jayko, you have been summoned before the Council today because you have surpassed all expectations set before you," an Elder said in a tone that meant business. I turned my head and looked at the man who had spoken, it was the same man that had asked who would mentor me ten years earlier. "You have shown considerable ability in the art of war, tactics, swordplay, and marksmanship. This council has deemed it time for you to become a full-fledged Ranger of the King's Army. Upon your graduation from here you will receive your own sword, bow, quiver, and armor. Do you believe yourself ready for the tasks ahead? Do you believe that your skills are adequate?"

I thought about it for a bit and then looked around at the gathered Council members. "Honestly, no," I said. "I'm only seventeen years old and not of age yet to be a man. I believe that my skills are adequate, but I do not find myself ready to be shoved out to face the world alone just yet."

"For the fact that you answered this honestly," the King said. "It shows that you are ready." There were murmurs of agreement from around the room and my heart was pounding. I only now noticed it, and I was pretty sure that it had been doing that ever since I had gotten in this room. The King snapped his fingers and a servant came in bearing a box that was pretty lengthy. The servant placed it in front of the King, bowed, and then left the room. "Jayko, come forward." the King said. I complied and stepped closer to the King. King Marek came out from behind the table and opened the box and presented a sword in a black sheath to me. "This sword was made for you by a blacksmith in my court on orders from your father," I looked up at the King when he said that. _My father?_ I thought. "He hopes that one day you will forgive him for not being with you and your mother. He loves both of you and regrets that he could not witness you grow-up." It sounded to me like the King was apologizing to me. I looked into the King's eyes and saw that they were gold.

The King held out the sword to me and I took it. The hilt was black and so was the pommel. Set in the pommel was a moonstone. The cross guard was golden and etched into it were the words _Honor_ and _Valor_. I drew the sword and the blade was silver in color. "Thank you, your Majesty." I said bowing my head.

Silence filled the room and I looked up at the King. He looked down at me sadly and said kindly, "There is no need to thank me, son."

My eyes widened and the King smiled sadly. Understanding filled me, I was the King's bastard son!

**Authors Note:**

**There's the first chapter. Let me know if you like it or not. I would really like to have some feedback on this story. This story falls under the category Dragon Rider because it has the characters from Cornelia Funke's book in here. They will show up later in the story.**

**Please Read and Review, **

**Porter-Fuzz1218**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**A New Journey **

I was in utter shock; I was the bastard son of a King! "Umm…I…" I stammered. I couldn't even talk. I was angry, happy, and spiteful all in one emotion. I looked down at the floor and closed my mouth. I took a deep breath and looked at the King once again. "What duties would you have me perform, my Lord?" I asked.

"I would like my own son to accompany me back to the capital, Fablestar," the King said. "I would like to make up for lost time."

"So my training here has been for nothing?" I asked. "I'm just to go and be a pampered prince in the court?"

"No, not at all, boy," the King said. "You need to learn what it takes to be a leader, you're my heir. I'll explain everything to you on the trip back to the capital, I promise you that."

"And if I refuse?" I asked.

"The line is as good as dead."

"Don't you have any more bastards?" I asked harshly.

The King looked pained and I almost regretted saying that, almost. "I did what I had to in order to protect you and your mother." the King said flatly.

"You ignored the question." I said.

"No, I do not have any other children." the King answered.

I thought for a couple of seconds before looking at the gathered council members. They were all watching this conversation with interest and it made me uncomfortable, they probably knew who I was and they didn't tell me! I looked at the man who I was supposed to call "father" and said, "Fine, I'll come with you to the capital."

Three hours later, I was on a boat surrounded by the King's Guard and servants. I was totally uncomfortable with my position. I felt awkward and out of place. I was able to find a quiet place to myself below deck and stay there by myself. "I believe that you wanted answers for the things that I have done."

I looked up and saw King Marek standing in the doorway of the little space that I had found. "I just don't understand, if you loved my mother so much, why did you leave us to fend for ourselves?" I asked.

My father walked in and sat down in front of me. "Son, you're a half-blood, do you know what that means?" I shook my head. "You're half human. The reason that you graduated from the Rangers program so quickly is due to the fact that you have my genetics inside of you. The Council knew that, they wanted to take you in and utilize that. They knew that you would be a perfect Ranger."

"If I'm half human, what other half am I?" I asked looking into my father's golden eyes.

"Half dragon." My father said.

"You look nothing like a dragon." I protested.

"Dragons are able to turn themselves into a human avatar in order to blend in," my father said. "I assume that during your studies you found that the King's Council is made up of dragons. Four silver dragons, four golden dragons, four black dragons, and the King."

"I did learn that, yes," I said. "I never knew that dragons had human avatars though. But how can a dragon mate with a human?"

"Do you really want to go into breeding?" my father asked. I shook my head and my father said, "I thought not. You said that you didn't understand why I left your mother, you have it backwards."

"Why would she leave? Didn't she love you?" I asked.

"When I told her of the dangers that our child would be in because they would be a half-blood, she said that she would leave in order to protect the child from harm. I protested, but your mother is a strong willed woman. She refused to stay in Fablestar knowing that her child, that our child, would be in danger because of it's parentage." My father answered sadly.

"Why would I have been hated?" I asked.

"There are purists that believe that dragons and humans should not intermingle. They usually find the pair and kill the woman and child. Purists are dragons that have refused to let go of the old ways." My father said sadly.

"So I'm in danger when I return to the capital then?" I asked. My father nodded. "Great."

"You're trained, they hopefully don't know that you are. If they come after you, you'll be ready for them."

"Yeah, but if I have to kill them I doubt that I will be ready for that, I've never killed anybody!"

"You're also a Ranger, it's part of your job description." My father said.

I thought back to the moment before the meeting when I had told Mentor Callas that learning information that we weren't supposed to learn was a part of our job description, and he had just laughed. "Why claim me now after all these years? What about my mother?" I asked.

"Your mother has been moved to the castle at Fablestar. As for why now, I wanted you properly trained in the art of war before I brought you into the world of politics. I wanted you prepared for assassins and for war if it does break out." My father said.

"If it does break out?" I asked.

"I suppose the Council didn't tell you," my father sighed. "The Gaurans have formed a pact with the Harads. The Gaurans are crossing the Azure River and are making their way towards Fort Ranok. If they attack the fort, it means war."

"Why would they attack?" I asked. "I thought that we had a peace treaty with them. What affront have we done to make them angry at us?"

"There isn't an affront. They just want more territory. The rumors are that they have a vendetta against dragons and ever since seven years ago, their resentment has reached an all time high."

"Why is that?"  
"The Golden One was their creation."

"Nettlebrand was the creation of the Gaurans?" I asked in disbelief.

"That is correct. The other rumors are that they are invading to gather enough resources to either resurrect Nettlebrand or create another one."

"What are our options?"

"I have sent a force to reinforce Fort Ranok, though I do not believe that it will be enough."

"Where do the Samarians stand on the matter?"

"They are planning to stay neutral I believe, and I respect that," my father said. "My biggest fear is that the Gaurans launch an all out war on us and we aren't ready."

"So, where is the armor and bow I was promised?" I asked trying to lighten up the mood.

"You'll get it when we reach the castle, I promise you that."

"Fair enough."

After sailing to a city called Shrewport, the boat stocked up on provisions needed for a weeklong journey on the sea. I was getting odd looks from the citizens and dockworkers whenever I was on shore. I didn't know what I had done to get the odd looks, but then I finally figured out why. Rangers were an anomaly for the people. I hadn't changed out of my Ranger attire yet, and I still had the sword on my back. Once the ship was fully stocked, I boarded the ship and went right to the prow of the ship and looked over at the horizon. I wondered if there were any others that were like me, any other half humans out in the world. From what I knew about dragons, they usually mated for life and they were very protective of one another. I let out a sigh as the ship set sail and waited for the new life ahead of me to reach me already. I desperately wanted to see my mother again after all these years. I had missed her.

After a week of sailing, we reached our last docking station. We got off of the ship and I was happy to set foot on land again. After all of the pitching and rolling of the sea, solid ground was my best friend. Fablestar was about a three days journey from where we had stopped and was a perfect place to defend. The city was built so that it was right up against the mountains. The walls surrounding the city were one hundred feet high and fifty feet thick. It had taken over a hundred years to complete the wall, but ever since the wall had been built it had yet to be breached. I hadn't talked to my father in awhile, but I didn't mind that. I still hadn't totally forgiven him for just letting my mother go, even if it had been my mother's choice. I had grown up without a father, so I had a bit of resentment. Two days of marching, we were in the Pass of Tartan. My father and the guards stopped abruptly and I looked at the captain of the guard out of curiosity. I signaled for me to be quiet and then I heard the sound of armor hitting against armor and the sounds of swords being unsheathed. "When the attack happens, we form a circle, back to back swords out. It's time to test your metal, young prince." The captain whispered.

I nodded and loosened my sword in its sheath. There was yelling and war cries, then all of a sudden a group of twenty men in chain mail and leather jerkins rushed out of the trees bordering the pass. Our group of ten stood back to back and unsheathed our swords. My heart was pumping and adrenaline started pumping out into my system. A warrior charged at me and I sidestepped his attack and quickly moved my blade in a simple flick of my wrist and cut off the man's head. Blood spurted out and covered the ground as another man stepped forward, but more cautiously. He swung his sword in an arc at my right shoulder. I evaded the blow by stepping so that I was facing sideways. I then spun on my back heel and spun my sword around and I felt blood on my hand. I yanked the sword out of the man's stomach and turned to face him as he fell to his knees. He started chanting in a foreign language and the next thing I knew, I was flying backwards and then falling out of the sky. I felt the breath fly out of my body as I hit water with a hard impact. I felt my ribs crack and possibly break and I tasted salt on my mouth. I saw someone swimming under the water towards me and then I saw nothing.

"I don't know Zubeida, what should be done about this boy?" a mans voice said.

"Well Barnabas, what do you think should be done? He needs care and I don't believe that it is a coincidence that he fell from the sky and Firedrake, Sorrel, and Maia are supposed to be visiting tomorrow." a woman's voice said.

"It has to be a coincidence, he's a human, just like you and I." Barnabas said.

"Then what was with the sword that the fisherman found when he pulled the boy out of the water?" Zubeida asked.

"Who knows, my dear Zubeida?" Barnabas asked.

I groaned and heard nothing more. I was finally able to open my eyes and I saw that I was in a room made of timber. The doorway was blocked with beads forming the door, and the bed I was on was way to comfy to be made from straw. I groaned and rolled my legs off of the bed and onto the floor. I noticed that my feet were bare and I was in foreign attire. I frowned and looked across the room. There wasn't anything in here, just the bed and a nightstand. I tried to stand up and I immediately fell back onto the bed gasping in pain. My entire torso hurt and I remembered falling from the Pass. Even taking deep breaths started to hurt. I heard footsteps and a short woman with long gray hair tied in a single braid down to her waist. She was wearing some sort of colorful dress and she looked surprised to see me awake. "You shouldn't be trying to move," the woman said sternly. "It'll make it harder for your ribs to heal."

"Sorry." I said. The woman raised an eyebrow and I wondered if I had done something wrong. "Excuse me, but where exactly am I?" I asked.

"I wasn't sure if you could speak English," the woman said. "To answer your question, you are in a remote village on the planet earth at the delta of the River Indus."

I leaned back onto the bed and closed my eyes. I was in the other world for the first time and I had no idea how to get back to my world. To my knowledge there shouldn't have even been a way for the man who sent me here to have sent me here. I heard the sound of a knife being unsheathed and my eyes snapped open immediately. I looked at the woman before me and she had taken out a little pocketknife and was approaching me. I knew a little magic, but I wasn't what you would consider an expert. In my exhausted state, I doubted if I could even be able to summon enough energy to cast a spell. So, I did the next best thing, I stood up and ignored the burst of pain and shoved past the woman and out of the room. "I was going to remove the bandage from around your torso to see how the swelling was doing, will you come back here you might do some serious harm to yourself and puncture a lung!" the woman implored.

I stopped about fifteen paces away from the door leading out of the house when the woman said that. She had sounded so much like my mother. I turned and found a chair and sat on it. The woman approached and lifted up my shirt. She cut the bandaging off and examined me. "The swelling has gone down quite a bit," she said. "You're a fast healer."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"I am Zubeida Ghalib, Dracologist and an elder of the village," the woman said. "What is yours?"

"My name is Jayko." I said automatically.

"I take it you're not from this realm, are you Jayko?" Zubeida asked.

"How…"

Zubeida chuckled. "I know things boy, I've been around for a while. I heard stories from my grandmother mentioning the Others, but I didn't believe her until now."

"What?"

"That is what the stories call you, the Others," Zubeida said looking into my eyes. "They say that you watch over the fabulous creatures and guard them against humanity."

"That last part is true, yes," I said wondering how stories of our existence could have reached humans ears in this world. "Most of the time we try not to interfere with the goings on in this world."

"There are people outside that I think you should meet." Zubeida said standing up from her crouching position. She held out her hand and I took it. She helped me up and I gingerly walked to the door with her. Zubeida opened the door and I saw a crowd of men, women, and children in ragged clothes looking at the two of us in wonder. Zubeida said something to the crowd and they stepped aside forming a type of pathway with people on either side. She looked at me and said softly, "Be careful and mind your step, the villagers believe that Others have mystical powers and you were dressed in the garb of one of them. They will be weary of you and might do something rash."

"I understand." I whispered back. Rangers were usually the ones that travelled to this world and took care of the fabulous creatures. Four people walked towards me and Zubeida from across the pathway made by the villagers. The two adults were holding hands and seemed to be married. The male was tall and thin, kind of like a rake, had a large nose, graying black hair that it almost looked like pepper, and spectacles that were on the bridge of his nose. The female was shorter and had black hair as well. The two children looked to be two to three years younger than I was and both of them had black hair as well. I deduced that they were the offspring. The daughter had long black hair that came down to her waist and a natural grace to her steps. The son had messy black hair and a very pale complexion. On his shoulder sat something with carrot orange/red hair. That too was very pale and had blood red eyes. Once the family arrived the man looked at me and introduced himself, "My name is Barnabas Greenbloom, professor in archeology and a studier of fabulous creatures. This is my family and Twigleg."

"My name is Vita Greenbloom, I am Barnabas' wife." The woman said looking lovingly at her husband.

"I'm Guinevere." The daughter said.

"I'm Ben." The son said.

"It is an honor to meet an Other," the little manikin thing said. "My name is Twigleg."

"Jayko." I said.

"Now that everyone here is introduced, shall we go inside and have some tea?" Zubeida asked.

"That sounds wonderful, Zubeida." Vita Greenbloom said.

The Greenblooms and I entered Zubeida's hut behind her and I sat down in a corner keeping an eye on things. The two adults and Zubeida talked about meaningless things and the two kids were talking amongst themselves. I watched and kept tabs on what was going on around me, just in case I needed the information later on. I closed my eyes and wished that I was back at Agra with Mentor Callas. "Excuse me." I opened my eyes and saw Guinevere and Ben in front of me.

"Can I help the two of you?" I asked.

"We were wondering," Ben started.

"How old are you," Guinevere said.

"And what was it like where you came from?" Ben finished.

I raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are the two of you always like that when you ask questions?" The two of them shook their heads and I closed my eyes for a couple of moments before answering. "I'm seventeen years old, and the place that I am from is not that different from the place that I am in now." I answered.

"You're seventeen?" Ben asked in surprise. "I thought you were older."

"I'm guessing that the two of you are about two to three years younger then me and that you aren't biological siblings." I said.

"How did you…"  
"How did I know?" I finished Ben's question. "It's simple really. The two of you look nothing alike. Ben, you look nothing like your parents so I'm guessing that you were adopted."

"Ben is still my brother!" Guinevere said.

"I never said that he wasn't," I said. "I simply said that he wasn't your biological sibling."

"Oh." Both Ben and Guinevere said.

I shifted and sucked in a painful breath. I let it out and both of the Greenbloom children were looking at me in concern. "I have some broken ribs." I said answering their unspoken questions.

"Maybe Firedrake can heal them when he comes to visit tonight." Ben said.

"Hopefully, I hate to see someone in such obvious pain." Guinevere agreed.

"Ben, Guinevere," Barnabas said. "I received word from Lola that Firedrake, Maia, and Sorrel will be here in about five minutes."  
"Lets get you up." Ben said holding out his hand.

I shook my head and Ben looked surprised. "I'll stay in here, thank you." I said.

"But why?" Ben asked.

"Safety reasons," I answered. "I don't have my sword, and Zubeida warned me that the villagers would be weary of me because I'm what you call an Other."

"Oh, well, we'll see if Firedrake can get in here and heal you anyway." Guinevere said determinedly.

"That would be very kind of you." I said.

Ben and Guinevere stood up and walked out of the hut with the adults and Twigleg. I leaned back in the chair I was sitting on and closed my eyes. _What's going on at home?_ I thought. _I wonder if we're at war or not. I certainly hope that we aren't. _My thoughts drifted to the academy back at Agra and I sighed. I opened my eyes when I heard the villagers talking outside of the hut and I looked curiously outside the window from my position. I didn't see anything, so I didn't think anything of the commotion outside. I was just after all someone that they probably wanted to kick out of their village. I didn't blame them. The door to the hut opened and my eyes snapped to the door. A small child was standing there and he looked at me in awe. "Can I help you?" I asked kindly.

The child said something to me in a language that I did not understand. I looked at him puzzled and he repeated whatever it was that he had said. I frowned at him and he pointed outside.

"Where's a translator when you need one?" I muttered.

"He wants you to go outside." A small voice said.

"What the…" I looked around and saw Twigleg standing underneath my chair. "What are you doing under there, I thought that you went outside with Ben and Guinevere."

"I did, young sir, but I came back inside to check on your condition." Twigleg said.

"That was very kind of you." I said awkwardly. "How do you know the language spoken here?"

"I studied it a long time ago when I was a slave to my former master." Twigleg said.  
"What's outside?" I asked.

"Why, Firedrake, Maia, and Sorrel." Twigleg answered.

"Why should I go out there? I can barely stand and walk without getting a painful spike in my side."

"Firedrake or Maia will heal you once you get out there, sir."

"What exactly are Firedrake and Maia?" I asked as I slowly stood up from the chair.  
Twigleg waited until I was fully standing before he answered, "They are both silver dragons."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**New Acquaintances **

"Silver dragons?" I asked incredulously.

"That's right, sir," Twigleg answered. "I had thought that would be obvious."

I thought about it and the name Firedrake did sound like a dragon's name. But how was I supposed to know that Maia was a dragon as well? "What is Sorrel?" I asked.

"A brownie girl." Twigleg said scowling.

"I take it you don't get along very well with her?"

Twigleg shook his head, "Not at all, young sir," the little manikin answered. "When we first met she distrusted me and treated me badly. The young master stuck up for me though and Sorrel has gotten better over the years, but not much."

"Why did she distrust you?" I asked suddenly curious.

"That is a tale for another time, young sir." Twigleg said looking up at me.

"I'll respect that." I said walking gingerly to the door. "Do I just open the door and hope for the best?"

"Pretty much." Twigleg said.

"Alright." I opened the door and stepped outside of the hut. I saw two silver dragons standing close to the hut. Both of them were fairly large, one had straight horns and the other had horns that curled forward. I bowed before the two of them and winced, as I stood straight.

"Is this the one that you told us about, Ben?" the one with the straight horns asked in a gentle female voice.

"Yup, that's him." Ben answered.

"Hello, my name is Maia." The female dragon said.

"Jayko." I said bowing only my head this time. I felt a strange warmth come over me and looked up and saw that she was breathing a blue fire on me. When Maia was done, I didn't feel any pain in my ribs whatsoever, I didn't feel any pain anywhere. "Thank you." I said bowing fully now.

"Your welcome." Maia said.

"So, are you a human or what? You smell odd, kind of like a mushroom mixed with a ginger root." Another female voice said. I looked up and saw a spotted brownie. That must be Sorrel.

"Sorrel, be kind." A male voice came from the other silver dragon. "Please forgive her, she doesn't trust easy."

"Nothing to forgive." I said.

"I'm Firedrake." The dragon said.

"Jayko." I introduced myself again.

"Pleased to meet you." Firedrake said.

"To answer your question, Sorrel," I said looking at the brownie girl. "I'm a human."

"You don't smell like one." Sorrel said.

"I wouldn't know." I replied.

"You told us that you were an Other." Ben said confused.

The three new fabulous creatures looked at me in awe and in shock and I let out a breath. "An Other?" Sorrel blurted. "Here?"

"I didn't know that they existed." Maia said.

"We exist." I said.

Firedrake stared at me intently and I felt unnerved about it but I didn't say anything. "How did you get here?" Firedrake asked.

"I was attacked on the way to the capital of our world and was sent here through magic." I answered. "The only way to get back is to go through one of the portals that connects this world to mine."

"Well, where's the closest one?" Ben asked.

"Well, what's closer the Rim of Heaven or the Great Sphinx in Egypt?" I asked.

An eerie silence invaded the area that we were standing in and I felt like I had said something that I shouldn't have said. I frowned and was about to say something when Sorrel asked me, "How do you know about the Rim of Heaven?"

"I learned about all of the connection points back at the school I had attended before I graduated. We learned where they are located, how they operate, and what the entrances look like. The entrance in the Rim of Heaven is actually inside of the cave systems. I have to be inside of the cave systems to find it." I explained.

"What school did you learn it from?" Sorrel asked wearily.

"You wouldn't know." I said. I looked over at Zubeida and asked, "When will I get my possessions back?"

"You'll get them back whenever the village elder has deemed that you are not a threat to this village." The stout woman answered.

"You've got to be joking!" I exclaimed. "I'll never get it back! I plan to leave immediately and head back home, there's a war brewing and I want to make sure that I'm there to fight for my country if it does break out."

"You'll have to prove that you are not a danger." Zubeida said.

"I can't do that." I said.

"And why not?" Vita asked curiously cocking her head to the side.

"Because I'm a trained killer." I answered. "That's my job is to kill people, I'm a soldier."

"You're just a boy!" Vita protested.

"I've been training since I was seven." I answered. "I was the youngest to ever graduate at the age of seventeen. My father made me that sword and it means a lot to me."

"I say give it back to him." Firedrake spoke up.

Everyone turned their attention to the male dragon. He looked into my eyes. "What?" Sorrel asked. "Are you crazy? He just told us that he's a killer!"

"The scent that you got Sorrel, I figured it out," Firedrake said. "He's only half a human."

I stiffened and looked at everyone around me ready to bolt if I needed to. "What's the other half?" Ben asked.

"He's half dragon." Maia said her eyes widening in surprise.

"How is that possible?" It seemed like everyone asked in unison.

"Because where I come from, dragons can create a human avatar and morph into at will." I answered. "My father is a dragon and my mother is a human being. Dragons and humans share very similar DNA it seems so breeding sometimes happens between the two species, but not very often."

"Are there any differences between you and a regular human?" Ben asked.

"I'm stronger, faster, more agile, and a better problem solver than a human is." I answered looking at the human, "Before I was separated from my father and sent here after our party was attacked, he said that some of us could learn to summon fire. I don't know if I have that ability yet."

"It'd be sweet if you did." Guinevere said.

"We could bring you to the Rim of Heaven." Maia said.

"That would be extremely kind of you, but if the enemy sent me here they might have sent something or someone to finish me off." I said. "I don't want to involve anyone that I don't have to."

"We're already involved." Ben muttered.

"What?"

"We're already involved because we met you." Ben said looking into my eyes.

"Ben's got a point," Zubeida said. "There's no need to go on alone if you don't have to."

"Then why don't we leave tonight?" I asked looking at the two dragons.

"That sounds good to us." Maia said. She looked at Firedrake and he nodded.

Firedrake looked at the Greenbloom family and asked, "We were wondering if Guinevere would like to visit the Rim of Heaven as well, would you as parents let Ben and Guinevere accompany us to the Rim of Heaven?"

"I don't see why not," Vita said. "There isn't a big threat out there like there was last time, and I don't see the harm in letting Guinevere go experience riding a dragon."

"I agree with you, Vita," Barnabas said looking at his wife lovingly. "Go pack your things Guinevere."

"Thanks daddy!" Guinevere said hugging her father first and then going to hug her mother. Guinevere went towards a hill and a hut that was at the base of it and disappeared inside.

"Why can't I go pack?" Ben asked.

"I figured that Firedrake would have asked for you to accompany them back to the Rim of Heaven, so I had already packed your things." Barnabas answered.

"Oh, thanks, dad." Ben said happily.

"No problem son." Barnabas said with a smile.

I was watching the proceedings with interest, but I didn't make any comments. They had said that they were already involved just by knowing me, maybe they were right, but if two of them were accompanying the dragons, the brownie girl, and me I doubt it would bode well. Sorrel was standing next to me and she stiffened. I looked at down at her and asked, "What is it?"

"I smell bulls, steel, blood, and fear." The brownie girl replied unsteadily. The two dragons picked up their noses and scented the air and looked around.

"What is that smell?" Maia asked.

"I don't know, I've never smelt anything like that before." Firedrake stated.

I walked over to Barnabas. "You consider yourself an expert on the fabulous creatures on this planet, correct?" I demanded.

"I do, but what does that have to do with what they're smelling?" Barnabas asked. "It might be a farmer slaughtering his bull."

"Are there minotaurs here on this planet?" I asked.

Barnabas shook his head, "There aren't to my knowledge." The Professor answered.

I cursed and looked at Sorrel. "What direction is the smell coming from?" I asked.

"From the east." The brownie answered.

I faced east and narrowed my eyes. "It could be nothing." Vita said. There was a scream of terror and then an eight foot horned figure emerged from the east with a scimitar that had fresh blood on its blade. I looked at Vita and she said, "Then again I could be wrong."

"Get inside!" I yelled as the minotaur charged towards us.

The minotaur swung its scimitar at me in a high arc and I evaded the blow by ducking out of the way. It roared angrily and swung again. I heard more hooves coming and I knew that there were more of them. "I wish I had my sword!" I yelled towards Zubeida's hut. The minotaur attacked another time and I pointed my right hand at the attacking beast and muttered, "Morior." The beast fell to the ground dead and I rushed forward and grabbed the fallen scimitar just in time to block an attack from another minotaur. I disengaged from the minotaur and launched a barrage of attacks so fast that the minotaur didn't see it coming. The minotaur was able to block some of the attacks but the ones that it wasn't able to block left cuts on its torso, arms, and legs. I finally made a move and removed the monster's head. Three more minotaurs advanced and I threw the scimitar I had and impaled the one in the middle through the head. The other two charged at me and I evaded by rolling on the ground and scooping up another scimitar. I felt a pain in my right shoulder and looked behind me to see an arrow shaft sticking from my back. I grimaced and switched the scimitar to my left hand happy that I was ambidextrous with a sword. I rushed the minotaurs and launched attacks at them. I stabbed one of them through the heart and cut the other in half in a follow through. I was left panting and I felt another shot coming and turned around and deflected the arrow. I saw the shooter and pointed at him and whispered, "Morior." The bowman dropped dead and I waited for a couple of minutes standing there alone, panting to see if any other enemies would approach. When none came forward I shouted, "It's seems to be safe to come out." I looked at the scimitar in my left hand and threw it on the ground in disgust. I disliked curved weapons; I could never seem to find one that was balanced.

Villagers started pouring out of their huts and I was approached by the village elders. With Zubeida as my translator, I was able to get my own sword and belongings back from them. The elders also decided to host a feast for me since I had saved their village. I told them that they didn't have to do that, but they said they felt obligated. I didn't argue so I collected my belongings and bowed to the elders once they brought my sword back along with my pack and clothing I had originally been wearing. The blood that Sorrel and the two dragons had smelt had belonged to a fisherman that the minotaurs had killed. I felt sympathy for the fisherman's family for their loss. But after awhile I couldn't stand the villagers approaching me and thanking me for saving their homes.

I walked over to the beach and sat down. "Can I remove the arrow?" someone asked me after I had been sitting there for a while.

I turned around and saw Guinevere standing there holding a salve and cloths to clean the wound. "If you feel that you can remove the arrow," I said. "Sometimes the arrow has to be pushed through for it to be removed."

"Would you like Firedrake or Maia present so that they can heal you?" Guinevere asked.

"No thank you," I said. "I'll be fine. It'll heal in its own time."

Guinevere nodded and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Are you?" I asked. Guinevere nodded. "Good, I hope that you aren't squeamish."

"I'm not." Guinevere said. I turned around and took a deep breath. I focused on relaxing as I felt Guinevere grasp the arrow shaft. I felt a tug and immense pain shoot in my shoulder. I grit my teeth together and she yanked again. With a final tug, she pulled the arrow free from my flesh. I grimaced as the arrow came free and I felt blood flow from the wound. I heard footsteps approach and Guinevere say, "Would you heal him?"

I felt that odd strange warmth feeling again and the numbness in my shoulder and the pain disappeared. "Thank you." I said.

"No problem." Firedrake said.

"I take it we're not leaving tonight." I stated.

"No, I don't believe that we are." Firedrake replied.

"Why not?" Guinevere asked.

"The elders of the village have decided to throw me a feast for saving their village." I said still looking at the sea.

"What did you do to the two minotaurs that you didn't kill with the sword?" Firedrake asked.

"I used magic." I answered running my left hand through my hair.

"Magic?" Guinevere asked perplexed.

"Yeah, it exists." I said closing my eyes. "For it to work the magician must speak Latin."

"So what did you say?" Guinevere asked.

"Morior." I said standing up and facing the human.

"What does it mean?" she asked.

"Die." Guinevere paled and she took a step back from me. I knelt down in the sand and sat back down. "I won't apologize for what I am." I said. "But I will apologize if I frighten you." I heard footsteps head away from me and I heard sand move as Firedrake lay next to me.

"Does the way you say something effect how the outcome of the spell?" the dragon asked.

"All the time." I answered. I looked at the silver dragon and continued. "If I had said death, I doubt anything would have happened. I commanded the minotaur to die, so it died."

"So magic is commanding things or people?"

"That's one way to look at it I guess." I conceded. "I just never looked at it that way."

"When I first came here seven years ago, I was at a loss," Firedrake said. "I believe that you are at a loss too on your first visit here."

"So you're the dragon that led the Golden One to the Rim of Heaven?" I asked looking at the silver dragon.

"Inadvertently." Firedrake said looking in my eyes. "How do you know about that?"

"The Council of Elders are the ones that planted the idea in your elder dragons mind for you to flee to the Rim of Heaven when we received word that humans planned to flood your valley." I answered his question.

"How did they do that?"

"The Council is made up of dragons. They are the oldest dragons that are alive in our country. They planted the idea through a dream because dreams are the easiest pathway between our world and yours. Dreams link ideas, form bridges, and provide a skilled telepathic dragon a way into a sleeping creature's mind." I answered fingering the hilt of my sword.

Firedrake seemed to notice my restlessness and stated the fact. "You're restless, I can smell it and see it. You want to get out of here and get back home." He said. "Dragons here are nervous around swords, we were nearly hunted to extinction by them."

I unsheathed about an inch of my sword before resheathing it. "Dragons have never been hunted where I live." I said. "In fact, our monarch is a dragon."

"May I ask you something?" Firedrake asked. I nodded. "You said that the Others watch over the fabulous creatures of this world, where were you when we were almost wiped out?"

"We were fighting a war at the time all those years ago." I answered. "The continent that my country is on has two other countries, the other two formed an alliance and had attacked the country that I now call home. At the time they didn't believe that humans should bend the knee to a dragon, because that's when we made the change from a human monarchy to a dragon monarchy. We had been having civil wars up to having a dragon monarchy due to illegitimate bloodlines and false kings claiming the throne. But back to the main story, to answer your question, when the change happened the other two countries attacked. Eventually, after five years of fighting, we ended up winning the war and signed a peace treaty that is in effect today. One of the countries changed their views, but the other has refused to and still dislikes the idea of dragons totally. When I was teleported here, I fear that that one country broke the treaty and initiated war."

"Is that why you were so anxious to leave tonight?" Firedrake asked. I nodded. "We still could."

I shook my head. "It would dishonor the village if we left when they threw a feast in my honor." I said. "I could not have that on my conscience." I looked at the silver dragon and asked, "You getting restless?"

"A bit." He replied with a smile.

I smiled back and stood up. The silver dragon followed suit and I felt like I should tell him what my father had told me about Nettlebrand, but I decided not to. We walked back towards the village and I strapped my sword on over my shoulder so that I could still move around through crowded areas. I liked having the option of having my belt either being a belt or a baldric. The smell of food assaulted my nose and my stomach growled. I wondered how long it had been since I had last had a meal. Firedrake looked over at me with amusement evident in his eyes and asked, "Hungry?"

"A bit." I answered sheepishly. "I don't know how long I've been here and I don't know when the last time that I had a meal was."

The villagers were dressed in what appeared to be their nicest clothes, and they were gathering around a pit that had a blue fire going. I walked over to Zubeida and she nodded her welcome. "What can I help you with, Jayko?" she asked.

"I was wondering, how long have I been here?" I asked cautiously.

"You were found by a local fisherman three days ago." Zubeida answered looking into my eyes. "I take it that you are rather famished?"

I nodded. Three days? The war that my father had said was on the brink of happening and that Callas had said there were rumors on surely had started by now. I sat down on the log next to Ben and he nodded at me. I nodded back at him and focused on trying to control my breathing to calm myself down. Dinner came out shortly after and it was fairly good. The almonds and the rice were delicious and the drink was an odd mixture of the local fruits. There was a relaxed atmosphere around the dinner fire, but I noticed that Firedrake and Maia were not present. I asked Ben about it and he finished chewing his food before answering, "They probably went on a flight to clear their heads." I nodded, it had gotten dark and the moon had risen about two hours ago.

I finished my meal and set the bowl down on the ground and watched the children play on the sand. My thoughts drifted back to when I was a child, never having any regular experiences. Never having any friends besides my mother. Even at the academy on Agra, I was somewhat of an outcast, a recluse. The other apprentices seemed to avoid me like I was the plague or something. I never figured out why, but now I had a good idea. It was probably because I was only half human and the other kids must've sensed it somehow that I wasn't normal. It's very similar to how a bully picks out his or her target. They just know that person is different from the others in some sort of way. I closed my eyes and opened them when I heard something behind me. I stiffened and turned around to see two kids fighting with one another with sticks. I shook my head in amusement and stood up. I walked back towards the beach and sat down so I could look at the sea. I closed my eyes once again and leaned back so that I was lying down on the sand. I sat up and removed my sword and scabbard from my back and went back down so I could be more comfortable. After awhile of being alone on the beach, footsteps took me out of my personal thoughts. "Who's there?" I asked keeping my eyes closed.

"It's me, Maia."

"Hey." I greeted not getting up from my current position.

"Why aren't you at the fire?" the female dragon asked as she lay down next to me.

"I wasn't comfortable there." I answered. "I noticed that you and Firedrake weren't there earlier either."

"We went flying, we aren't comfortable around human beings other than the Greenblooms." Maia said.

"I kind of figured that when Ben said that he thought that the two of you went flying."

"You seem to be troubled." Maia stated.

"The country that I call home is probably in a war right now and there's nothing I can do to help stop the fighting until I get back home." I said. "I feel helpless and useless. I'm guessing that it's quite a journey yet to the Rim of Heaven, and I doubt that the other dragons there will be receptive to me."

"You never know, they were open to Ben." Maia said.

"Isn't he the Dragon Rider?" I asked.

"Yes…"

"He's different because he's the Dragon Rider." I said. I finally opened my eyes and looked into Maia's golden ones. "They're willing to accept him because he helped defeat the Golden One."

"Firedrake mentioned that you knew about his story." Maia said in her soft, gentle voice.

"Are the two of you mates?" I asked.

"What…no…I mean…" Maia stuttered.

"You like him though, don't you?" I asked looking at the female silver dragon. She nodded and I asked, "You just don't know if he likes you?"

"We've been friends ever since we met seven years ago." Maia said. "I don't want to mess the relationship up by stating my feelings for him."

"You will never know how he feels for you if you never ask." I said looking back at the sky. We lied there in silence for a while and I closed my eyes. I slowed my breathing down and soon fell into a nice, restful sleep.

I woke up to see sunlight coming through a silver lining. I reached up and touched the silver and felt the warm, smooth, texture of a dragon's wing. I blinked in surprise and then wondered how I had fallen asleep underneath of a dragon's wing. I yawned and rubbed the rest of the sleep from my eyes. The wing moved and my eyes narrowed at the sunlight's assault on my pupils. I stood up and stretched and saw that it was Maia that had covered me up. She stood up and stretched similar to a cat and yawned. "Good morning, Jayko." Maia greeted me. "Sleep well?"

"Morning, Maia." I said. "I slept alright. How did you sleep?"

"Pretty well," she answered. "I could've slept a bit better though, but I have no big complaints."

"That's good." I said. "Why did you cover me like that?"

"You were shivering." Maia said simply.

I was touched by the dragon's gesture. She barely knew who I was, yet she cared for me. "Thank you." I said bowing towards her. "That was kind of you."

"I didn't want to see you freeze." Maia said looking up at the sky. "I wonder where Firedrake is."

"Why don't you go find him?" I asked. Maia looked at me questioningly and I shrugged me shoulders. "The main difference between dragons in my world and this one is that the dragons here are nocturnal, so maybe he's resting. If he is, I suggest that you do the same."

"I was just resting." Maia stated.

"All the same, I don't think that it would be a fun experience for whoever is riding you tonight to fall through the sky if you fall asleep while you're flying." I said. Maia nodded and walked away to find Firedrake and Sorrel. I bent down and unsheathed my sword and admired the silver blade. I removed my shirt because even though it was early in the morning it was getting warm already. I set the shirt on the sand and settled into a shoulder width stance facing the sea with my sword in my right hand and the point slanting towards the sand. I took a deep breath and flowed through a couple of stances, starting off slow and progressively going faster and faster. I imagined myself in a fight against a horde of soldiers and even started making killing moves through the air. I spun the sword in a circle at my side in a little flourish and then spun the hilt so I was holding the sword backwards. I stabbed backwards and then pulled the sword free from the imaginary body. I flipped the sword behind my back in a complicated maneuver and started going through another set of forms with my left hand. After about an hour of doing this, I became aware that I was being watched. I stopped and stabbed my sword into the sand and faced back towards the village. Standing there watching me, on a little hill overlooking the sea and the beach, were Ben, Guinevere, Sorrel, Vita, Barnabas, and Zubeida. My breathing was still normal but I had sweat pouring off of my body from the exertion that I had just done. "Can I help any of you?" I asked a bit peeved that I had been interrupted. I hated being watched when I worked on my swordplay by myself.

"No, we were just wondering what you were up to." Barnabas answered. "Now we know."

"You seem to be very comfortable with a sword." Vita noted.

"I've been drilling with a sword ever since I was seven years old, I hope that I should be comfortable with one by now." I said putting my hands on my hips.

"Earlier you said that you were faster than a normal human being, can you prove that?" Guinevere asked with a hopeful expression that ticked me off for some reason.

I sprinted up the hill and reached her in less than four seconds and she squeaked in surprise when I was in her face that quickly. "Is that fast enough?" I asked in a dangerously quiet voice. "I don't appreciate that you all are watching me and putting me under scrutiny even though you don't think that it is. I may be only a year older than you and Ben, but I am more mature than you ever will be." I looked over at the adults and said, "I may be years younger than the three of you, but I have witnessed things that the three of you will never see in your lifetime. I live in constant fear that I will be killed now because I have found out my parentage. I've experienced things that you all never will. I may be a "child" in your eyes, but in my eyes and in many others, I am a mature person. How many of you can say that you've seen death at the age of seven? How many of you can say that you learned how to kill or be killed at that age? Hmm? NONE of you! That's how many! I may be acting immature in your eyes, but where I come from privacy is a custom that is greatly practiced. I take it that it is not practiced here? It seems that I cannot be left alone for more than ten minutes here before someone else comes and talks to me! All I ask is to be left alone for once! Is that too much to ask?"

There was a stunned silence on the little hill and I stalked away from the crowd and went back down to the beach. I grabbed my sword and shirt and walked further down the beach. I felt more anger and frustration than I had felt in years, and it was for such a simple thing as privacy and time left alone for myself and myself only. I sat down on a piece of driftwood and closed my eyes. A memory from seven years ago surfaced in my mind after a very frustrating sword lesson where Mentor Callas had embarrassed me in front of other Mentors and apprentices. "_You know something, Jayko?" Mentor Callas asked._

"_What is it Mentor Callas?" a ten year old me asked._

"_There will come a day when you will feel that you are misunderstood," Mentor Callas said looking down at me. "On that day you will feel like a piece of wood floating in a river, powerless to change its course. You will be furious and frustrated, but there is only one thing that I believe that you can do to move on without becoming bitter."_

"_What's that?" I asked curious._

"_Let your frustration go and look at what made you frustrated." Mentor Callas said with a smile. "If you feel that frustration was justified, then let it go knowing you were in the right. If you feel that your frustration was not justified, apologize for anything that you did if you acted foolishly during your frustration, and then let go of your frustration."_

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath and let it out. I truly felt that my frustration was justified and took more calming deep breaths to let the frustration leave my body. I smiled thinking back to that day when Callas had given me that lesson. It had been a tough day that day. A very tough day. I don't remember much of that day, but what I do remember wasn't that pleasant other than that memory. I looked down at the cross guard on my sword and reread the two words etched into it, _Honor _and _Valor_. I looked up at the sky and wished for the thousandth time that I was back home. _There I at least know the customs and how to act_ I thought. _Here I don't know what to do. What I expect and what happens are two totally different things._

I sat on that piece of driftwood for another two hours doing some soul-searching. I started drawing the Warrean alphabet into the sand and then started to write words. We may speak English, and I don't know how that became our language there, but our alphabet was different than the English one. I finally stood up and sheathed my sword. I set the scabbard on the log and I got into a push up position. I started doing push ups until my arms couldn't take it anymore and I collapsed onto the sand. I rolled onto my back and sat up to look out at the sea. I had always had a fascination with the sea ever since I was little. I stood up once more and looked around, seeing that there was nobody around, I stripped down to nothing and went into the sea to wash the sweat from my body.

After ten minutes, I was satisfied that I had gotten all of the sweat off of my body for the moment and got out of the water and onto shore. I spoke a spell that quickly dried my body and I put on the donor clothes. I strapped the sword on my back, and I headed back to the village. When or if we left tonight, it certainly would be interesting to see how it would go between the two humans and myself. I stopped at the outskirts of the village and took a deep breath and then released it. Yeah, it definitely will be interesting whenever we do leave this place.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Heading Home**

I walked into the village and headed to an ancient looking building that had a dome and stone dragons pointing North, East, South, and West. I entered the building and looked around. It suddenly struck me that this seemed eerily familiar from some place. I couldn't place my finger on it, but I had been to a place similar to this one back at home. I went further and further inside of the building and realized that this place was a tomb. I found the sarcophagus and saw the inscription written in the native language spoken here. "This is the tomb of the first Dragon Rider." A voice said behind me.

I whirled around and saw a pale girl standing behind me. "Excuse me?" I asked.

"That inscription, Luke Porter," the girl said. My eyes widened. "It says here lies the Dragon Rider, may he rise again and when he does silver will be worth more than gold."

"How do you know my name?" I asked wearily stepping around the sarcophagus and looking at the girl more closely. She had light brown hair that came down to her shoulders and piercing green eyes. She was wearing a silver gown and a moonstone bracelet on her left wrist.

The girl smiled and I found it unnerving. It was not a human smile. "I've been watching over you ever since you were born." The girl answered. "You see, Luke son of Marek, the fate of my race lies with you and the war that will be fought. It has been prophesized that you are the one who will prevent the massacre that will come."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I demanded. "Who are you?"

"I am Lorelei daughter of Sapphire," the girl answered. "I am one of the relatives to the Guardians of the Seven Entrances. Does that give you any clues?"

I narrowed my eyes. The Seven Entrances were referring to the gateways that lead from this world to the world that I came from. I knew that there were guardians that didn't let certain things, or people, through. I didn't know that they had relatives. "The Guardians are immortal and are neigh impossible to kill." I said. "If you're a relative of theirs, the same must be true for your race."

"Correct." Lorelei laughed. "Do you still not know what I am?"

"No, I don't." I answered.

"I am one of the Lunar spirits." Lorelei said cocking her head to the left. "The Gaurans believe that by hunting us, they will take out the dragons."

"Are they wrong?" I asked.

"No and yes." Lorelei said sadly. "If the moon goes in our world, the moon will fail to ever rise here again. Dragons will become petrified here and cease to exist on this world. In our world, dragons will only be able to fly when there is daylight. If even one of us survives, we can have offspring that will become immortal as well. But if we are all destroyed, nothing can take our place except for the Fated One."

"If you're going to tell me that I'm the Fated One, you can just leave me now or take me home so I can end the Gauran threat." I said seriously.

"You are the Fated One though, if you accept your destiny." Lorelei said looking into my eyes. "It has been a thousand years since the last half-blood was born."

"You mean that I was the first in a thousand years to be born?" I asked.

"Correct and if you're lucky you will live at least that long." Lorelei said. "I have been living inside of the moonstone that is set inside of your sword's pommel. A moonstone is my power source, I created moonstones when the moon first looked upon the worlds. There is power in a moonstone, beauty, and knowledge. Do you know why I'm inside of yours?"

"Because I'm the Fated One?" I asked placing my hands on my hips.

"That and we need to make sure that you survive to become a man. Once you pass your eighteenth birthday, your mortality will be lost and you will start to transform into a Guardian type. Like you said, Guardians are nearly impossible to kill."

"Why will I become a Guardian?" I asked.

"You won't actually become a Guardian, but you will become very similar to one. You see your mother's father actually is a Guardian."

"My grandfather's a Guardian!"

"Oddly enough, he's the Guardian of the Rim of Heaven." Lorelei said looking at me oddly.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked.

"Like what?" Lorelei asked confused.

"Like how you were just looking at me." I answered. "It makes me nervous."

"I'm sorry. But I find you quite attractive for a mortal." Lorelei said. "I have to ask something before I leave you, do you know the significance of how the way your sword is colored?"

I thought about it and at first I didn't have an answer. But the more I thought about it, the more it became obvious. I looked up and was about to answer but I saw that I was alone once again. I furrowed my forehead and looked around the tomb's chamber. If I was actually of Guardian and dragon heritage, I would really become a target on the battlefield. I was about to leave the tomb when I heard a whisper of a voice say, "You will not remember this conversation, sorry for the inconvenience."

"What?" I asked just as I stepped out of the tomb. I didn't remember what I had been doing in the tomb so I looked around the area to see if I was missing something. I shrugged my shoulders and went back inside of the tomb to see if I could fill the void in my memory.

When nothing seemed to be working and filling in the blanks that I had for a missing hour of my life, I walked out of the tomb and saw that the sun was getting ready to go down. I walked to Zubeida's hut and entered the room that she had placed me in when I had been transported here. I saw that my clothes that I had been wearing and my pack were on the bed. I put the clothes in the pack and then took my sword and put it on my left hip so I could put my pack on my back. I exited the hut and saw the village was standing outside with Firedrake, Maia, Sorrel, Zubeida, and the Greenblooms. "Ready?" Ben asked me.

"Yeah," I answered. "Sorry for snapping at you guys earlier."

"No need to apologize, my boy." Barnabas said pushing his spectacles up onto his nose.

"I still feel the need to, I shouldn't have snapped at you, yet I did." I said bowing to the Greenblooms and Zubeida. "For that you have my deepest regret."

"Can we just get a move on already?" Sorrel asked already on Firedrake's back. "The sun is about to go down and I don't think that we just want to sit here all night exchanging apologies."

I looked up and smiled. "Good point." I said nodding toward the brownie girl. I walked over to the two dragons and asked, "Which one of you am I riding?"

"You'll be riding me." Maia said.

Ben approached me with a leather strap and handed it to me. "To tie yourself onto the spine so you aren't blown off by the wind." He said.

"Thanks." I took the strap and looked at the brownie girl. "What about my pack?"

"Toss it here." Sorrel said somewhat impatiently.

I shrugged my pack off and tossed it to her. Sorrel caught it and strapped it to three other packs on Firedrake's back. I turned my belt into a baldric and resituated the sword so I could sit on Maia's back more comfortably. Ben and Guinevere clambered up Firedrake's tail and onto his back and I wondered if I should do the same to get on Maia. I decided against it and just jumped into the air and swung a leg around. I landed between two spikes just in front of the wings and strapped myself on. Maia swung her head around to look at me and I looked her in the eyes. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing, it's just that I've never seen someone mount a dragon that way before." Maia said with amusement.

"I didn't want to climb up your back, I doubt that would've been comfortable for the both of us." I said crossing my arms across my chest.

Maia chuckled and turned around. She looked at Firedrake and he nodded. Maia spread her wings and with a couple of powerful strokes of her wings, we were in the air. I didn't realize that I had been holding in my breath until I exhaled. I looked down and saw the landscape moving beneath us. I remembered to keep breathing and focused on that. After some time of flying, Maia turned her head and looked at me and asked, "So, do you like flying?"

"It's better than I thought it would be." I admitted. "I thought that I was going to be sick or something like that."

"You don't look pale." Maia called.

"Thanks." I called back.

Maia turned her head around and sped up. I leaned back against the spine behind me and closed me eyes. With the dream I had, I wished that I didn't.

_An army was laying siege to a castle surrounded by high, thick, walls, with catapults, trebuchets, and battering rams. The defenders were raining arrows and pitch down among the assailants but the attacking army kept surging forward. Blue flame came down from the heavens and ignited the pitch burning the attacking army. Screams of burning men and dying men assaulted my ears. I looked around and saw Ben standing on a hill with a horrified expression on his face. The battering ram finally broke through the thick door and the army poured through the breached door. _My eyes snapped open and I was breathing heavily. I saw that the moon was about to disappear behind a distant mountain ridge that was probably within a day or two's flight. Maia and Firedrake started descending from the sky and when Maia landed, I unstrapped myself and dismounted from her quickly. I stumbled a little bit due to me not being on land all night and then walked to a small boulder sticking from the ground. I sat down on the boulder and took deep breaths. "What's wrong with you?" Sorrel asked.

I turned on the boulder and faced the brownie girl. She was holding my pack out for me and I took it. "I didn't sleep well." I answered.

Sorrel looked at me quizzically and walked away muttering. I didn't hear anything that she said, so I ignored it. Ben and Guinevere approached me and Ben asked, "Are you alright?"

I shook my head and answered, "No, but I'll get over it."

"You sure?" Guinevere asked.

"Positive." I said looking at the pair with a slim smile. "Why don't the two of you go and get some sleep? I'll keep watch."

"Alright." Ben said skeptically. Ben walked towards a shaded area, but Guinevere stayed put.

"Are you sure that you're alright?" Guinevere persisted.

"Yes," I answered. "I'm sure. Go get some sleep. I'll watch and let you guys know if I see anything out of the ordinary."

"How will you know if anything's out of the ordinary though?" Guinevere asked. "You're not from here."

"Trust me, I'll know." I said.

"Alright." Guinevere said. "You will wake us up if you notice anything odd, right?"

"Ranger's honor." I said placing my right hand on my heart.

Guinevere still didn't seem convinced that I was perfectly fine, but she went and sat down by the dragons in a shaded area with her brother Ben. Sorrel was curled up in a small little ball against Firedrake's flank and the Greenbloom children were resting against Maia. I let out a sigh and turned my attention to my surroundings. I took my scabbard off of my back and laid it across my thighs. "Hello there." A voice said.

I looked to my right and down and saw Twigleg standing there looking at the horizon as the sun rose. "Hey." I greeted. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I slept in the young master's backpack." Twigleg answered. He raised his right hand and caught a fly and then casually popped it into his mouth. "I've slept enough for the journey as far as I'm concerned."

"So I was wondering about back to when you said you had a former master," I said looking at the little manikin cautiously. "who was it?"

"Do you truly wish to know?" Twigleg asked looking up at me.

"I do, I will not change my opinion of you." I said.

"I was a slave to Nettlebrand the Golden One." Twigleg said looking at me as if to judge my reaction.

I was surprised but I kept my reaction hidden. "I know about the Golden One." I said. "How did you meet Ben, Sorrel, and Firedrake?"

"I was sent to spy on them so that my former master could hunt them." Twigleg said sadly.

"Oh." I said shocked. I hadn't been expecting that answer. Twigleg then informed me about his story and I listened throughout the entire thing patiently and with little interruptions. I only stopped the little manikin to ask a couple of questions about things I didn't understand. Twigleg seemed happy to answer the questions as if he needed some therapy. When Twigleg finished I looked down at the homunculus and said, "That definitely fills in some of the blanks about the Dragon Rider story."

"I'm glad to be of service." Twigleg said with a bow.

"Then I feel that I should return the favor and tell you something as well." I said. "My father is concerned that the Gaurans, who are responsible for the creation of Nettlebrand, will try to resurrect him or create a new one that is more deadly than the original was."

"But why?" Twigleg asked in alarm, his red eyes growing large with worry.

"They hate dragons." I answered. "I don't know why, but they do. You see the Warreans monarch is a dragon, and that infuriates them. They do not believe that humans should bend their knees to something that is not a human. Gaurans believe that humans are superior to every living thing."

"That's depressing to think about."

"It is." I agreed. "My father told me before I was teleported here by an enemy, most likely a Gauran sympathizer, that the Gaurans will try to start a war to gather enough resources to do what I just told you." I paused for a little while and then continued. "That's why I'm in a big rush to get back home, I cannot let that monstrosity or something similar enter the world."

"I understand, are these Gaurans responsible for creating me as well?"

"I'm not sure." I answered truthfully. "But homunculi are respected where we come from."

"I'm scared of all the dragon fire that could happen to me though." Twigleg said shuddering.

"Where I come from, we have three types of dragons." I said. "Silver, golden, and black. Each has a different fire ability. Silver dragons can heal or destroy. Golden dragons can destroy with their fire or they can breath lightning, which I personally think is cool. Black dragons," I stopped.

"Black dragons do what?" Twigleg asked.

"Black dragons can do everything, they can heal, have fire that destroys, and just do an array of different things with their breath." I said shaking my head. "But the odd thing is that every dragon has golden eyes."

"That is weird." Twigleg said.

I nodded and looked up at the sky and measured where the sun was in the sky. "It's about noon." I mused. "Man does time fly."

"Would you like me to wake up the young master so that you can rest?" Twigleg asked.

I shook my head. "I'm alright." I said.

"Well if you don't mind, sir, I think that I am going to try and get some sleep." Twigleg said.

"Go ahead, I don't mind at all." I said.

Twigleg bowed and went over to the group and used one of Ben's hands as a pillow. I looked over the landscape and saw something coming towards the camp. I squinted and focused on the blob that was moving. I reached into my pack and pulled out a set of binoculars. I scanned the area and saw that there were more minotaurs running towards the camp. The unsettling thing was that they were coming from the direction that the village had been. I cursed and wished that I had some sort of armor with me because there were more of them this time. I couldn't figure out why I had minotaurs coming after us. My eyes widened in realization. "I knew that I placed them in jeopardy." I murmured to myself. The minotaurs were sent after me! I quickly put my baldric back on and looked at the group that was sleeping in the shade. I looked back through the binoculars at the advancing group of minotaurs and noticed that they were wearing armor this time and also carried shields. I took the binoculars away from my face and once again looked at the sleeping company. "Goodbye." I whispered. I spoke a charm that warded the place against any intruders and then took off running towards the advancing group of armored minotaurs.

I sprinted full speed and realized just how fast I was. I drew my sword and was on the group within two minutes of full out sprinting. I was shocked because they had been about two miles away from the little alcove that I had been at. I quickly decapitated the leader before they even knew what hit them and then the remaining nineteen roared and charged at me. I picked up the fallen leader's scimitar and attacked and blocked the incoming attacks. I killed two more minotaurs before the scimitar was broken by a broadax. I threw the broken, sharp, hilt at a minotaur and punctured his lung. He went down and I killed the minotaur with the broadax with a underhanded swing of my sword. The remaining minotaurs had their shields and formed a phalanx, then moved towards me in attack positions. I silently cursed and took a two handed grip on my sword. The phalanx advanced towards me and I looked for a weakness in it and I didn't see one. I scanned the area looking for something that I could use to my advantage and found a boulder. I pointed at it and muttered, "Moveo." The boulder moved from its position and I then pointed my right hand at the phalanx and made a slashing motion. The boulder followed the movement and the minotaurs looked at the boulder and I saw the fear in their eyes. The boulder crushed them all and I let the magic go and the boulder stopped where it was. I let my hand fall to my side and I then walked over to the minotaur that I had punctured the lung of. It was on its back choking on its blood when I approached. I knelt down and yelled, "Who sent you after me?"

"I think you already know that answer, princeling." The minotaur said in a deep guttural voice.

"I don't think I do!" I growled.

"Then you are unintelligent." The minotaur choked.

"Tell me and I will ease your passing." I said.

"The Gaurans sent us, you don't even have to ask that question."

"Will another party be sent?" I asked. The minotaur didn't answer and I stabbed my sword in the ground next to his head and yelled, "Will another party be sent after me?"

"You have nothing to fear," the minotaur said. "the Gaurans just wanted to test you at our expense. We were just the unlucky bastards sent to track you down."

"Do you want me to heal you?" I asked.

"No, Ranger, let me pass." The minotaur said.

"I'm sorry." I apologized.

"It isn't your fault Ranger." The minotaur said closing its eyes. "Burn me and my kinsman though, that is all I ask."

"I will." I promised.

"Thank you." The minotaur said with a death rattle.

I bowed my head knowing that it was dead and I then picked it up and carried it over to the phalanx that I had crushed. I set it down next to its other fallen comrades and then went over to the minotaur that I had decapitated. I brought that body over to the others and then murmured, "Ignis." Fire leapt from my right hand and ignited the bodies of the minotaurs. I watched the bodies burn for about three minutes before saying, "Paenitet me occidere. Spero autem quod et in pace, non est pugnandum." I turned my back on the funeral pyre that I had made for the fallen minotaurs and headed back to the camping sight.

I got back and realized I was covered in minotaur blood and fur. "Damn it." I cursed. I looked at my body more closely and breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed that it was just the shirt. I removed the baldric and then the shirt. I rummaged around my pack looking for the shirt I had been wearing when I had been transported to this world.

"What are you looking for?" a tired voice asked.

I turned around and saw Guinevere standing behind me rubbing her eyes. "Umm, I'm looking for my other shirt." I answered. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I was, but then I heard something foraging around." Guinevere answered. She was fully awake now and she was staring at my torso.  
"Can you not stare at me please?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry." Guinevere apologized blushing. She turned away and I quickly slipped the white tunic on then looked for my leather jerkin and slipped that on as well.

"So, how did you sleep?" I asked as I tied the strings on the back of the leather jerkin.

"Alright." Guinevere answered. She looked at the shirt that I had been borrowing and frowned. "Why is there blood and fur on your shirt?" she asked.

"There was another band of minotaurs heading towards the camp." I answered as I put the baldric back on. I bent back over and rummaged around in the backpack for the leather bracers that I could put on. I found them and slipped them on. "I went out and attacked them." I tied the strings with my teeth on one and then moved on to the other. "I burned the bodies and then came back here."

"Why did you leave here without waking any of us up?" Guinevere asked.

"You all needed the rest." I answered looking at her. "Besides I placed wards around the encampment before I left, which reminds me that I should probably take them down." I whispered the inaudible spell that removed the wards and nodded in satisfaction that the task was completed. "There, no harm no foul."

"What did you say?" Guinevere asked.

"I don't want to tell you." I answered crossing my arms across my chest.

"Can you at least tell me what the symbol on your leather thing means?" Guinevere asked.

"This is called a jerkin not a thing," I corrected. The symbol that Guinevere was referring to was a sun and a moon merging. "The symbol that you ask about is the Ranger's symbol. It symbolizes the sun and the moon coming together and forming an eclipse."

"What is so important about an eclipse?" Guinevere asked.

I sighed and sat down on the rock that my pack was next to and looked at the Greenbloom girl. "The eclipse is important to the Rangers because it is when magic is at its strongest point. At an eclipse it makes ambushing an enemy a hell of a lot easier than ambushing them when there is at least a source of light available." I answered.

"Oh." Guinevere said somewhat subdued.

I looked up at the sky and estimated that it was around two hours passed noon. "You wouldn't mind taking over watch while I sleep, would you?" I asked.

"No, go ahead." Guinevere said.

"Thanks." I said appreciatively. I removed the baldric and set it on the ground next to the boulder and softly spoke, "Mitte gladium manete." I didn't trust the girl to not try to play with my sword or the boy for whenever he woke up. I moved my pack closer to me and lay down on the ground. I used the pack as a pillow and closed my eyes.

I woke up to someone prodding my left side. I groggily opened my eyes and saw that it was Sorrel. "What is it?" I asked tiredly.

"The sun's about to set, we need to get going." Sorrel answered.

I nodded and stood up. I couldn't believe that I had been asleep for that long. I stretched and walked around a bit to wake up my limbs and get the blood flowing. I finally went back to where I had my sword magically glued to the ground and knelt down and whispered the spell that undid the previous one. I was able to pick the baldric and sword up, and slip it on my back. I did that and stood back up. I picked up my pack and tossed it to Sorrel, who was already on Firedrake's back, and she caught it. The only things in the pack that were still mine were another pair of pants, greaves, and my cloak. I approached Maia and mounted her the way I had the previous night. She looked back at me after I had strapped myself in and I nodded that I was ready to go.

"All set?" Firedrake asked looking at Maia.

"Ready when you are." Maia said looking back at the male silver dragon.

The night was uneventful for the most part until the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I looked behind the group and saw another flying shape following us. I frowned and squinted to see what the shape was. It looked to be a fairly decent sized creature, it was most definitely an organic creature, nothing man made. Maia must've sensed something was wrong with me because I felt her slowing down. "You alright back there?" Maia called.

I turned around and yelled, "Yeah, I'm fine." I turned back around and the creature was gone. "That's not possible." I muttered under my breath. But the more I thought about it, the more it did seem a bit possible. It could have dove during the brief time I was turned around, yet something in my gut told me I was wrong. I shook my head and returned my attention forward where it probably should belong. For the rest of the evening flight, I could not forget about the flying creature.

When we landed, I took my belongings from Sorrel and went towards the edge of camp. I set my pack down and opened it up. I took the bloodstained shirt out and placed it on a rock. "I find it odd that this was the place that we landed seven years ago when Ben was kidnapped by the Roc." Sorrel said.

"A what?" I asked turning around.

"It's like a giant eagle." Ben explained. "It took me when Twigleg and I went to find water to fill up our water bottles."

"Oh, so you can tell me where a stream is?" I asked.

"It's down the hill and to the left," Ben said thoughtfully. "At least I think that's were it is."

"I'll take your word for it Dragon Rider." I said taking the bloodstained shirt and my cloak.

"Why are you going to the stream?" Firedrake asked.

"So I can wash the shirt." I answered. "And, I'm thirsty."

"You shouldn't go alone, Guinevere told us what happened yesterday." Firedrake said.

"I can take care of myself, thank you." I said looking at everyone gathered at the camp.

"I don't think that Maia and I can fly during the day time, we don't have the moondew." Firedrake said.

"I won't get carried away." I said placing my hands on my hips. "If I do, I'll find a way out of the nest if it carries me there. If it kills me on the spot, so be it."

Firedrake and I stared at one another for a long time before he finally shook his head, "Fine," he said. "If you want to risk your own life, go ahead."

"It's the only life I'm willing to risk." I said. "I've endangered to many others already." With that said, I walked away from the encampment with Ben's instructions in mind. I found the stream and washed the donor shirt as best as I could. I removed the stench from it, but I couldn't remove the stains. "Figures." I muttered.

"What's a human doing with a sword in this time period?" a voice asked.

I looked up and saw that across the stream was a black dragon. The dragon was grinning at me and I had a terrible feeling in my stomach. "What's a dragon doing alive in this time period?" I retorted.

"Who says I am from this time period?" the dragon asked in a bored tone.

"What other time period would you be from? It's impossible to travel through time." I answered.

"Smart boy."

"So I've been told." I said watching the dragon wearily. "Only silver dragons are said to inhabit this world."

"So they do, I'm only here on a short visit."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Finally, a question that everyone asks yet nobody knows the answer to." The dragon said. "It's very simple, I was sent here to kill you. The Gaurans might not like us, but they fear your kind more. I don't understand why, but a job is a job."

"Why kill me when you could kill them?" I asked.

"They found my nest, I could not let them harm my hatchlings." The dragon said. "They told me I had to do something otherwise my hatchlings would be killed."

"They lied to you! They're going to kill them anyway!" I said full of pity.

"Maybe, maybe not." The dragon said crouching.

"I don't want to do this." I warned.

"Then this will make my job rather easy!"

The black dragon pounced towards me and while he was in the air I raised my right hand and said in a commanding voice, "Subsisto!" The black dragon stopped in mid air and stayed put. I looked at the dragon's astonished face and asked, "They didn't tell you about this, did they?"

"No." the dragon gasped.

"They most likely either already killed your hatchlings or will train them to become killers of their own kind when they are old enough." I said.

"How do you know?"

"My father told me bits and pieces of information about the last war between humans and dragons along with the last war between Mason, Gaura, and Samara." I answered. "Did they even tell you who I am?" The dragon shook his head. "I'm the son of King Marek of Mason."

"My lord, forgive me!" the dragon cried out in shame.

"This is embarrassing." I muttered. I had never, ever, been faced with a situation like this one! "If I let you down, you won't attack me, will you?" I asked cautiously.  
"I will never attack you again, you have my word." The black dragon swore.

I ended the magic and the dragon fell into the stream. The water came up to his knees and he walked out of the stream and bowed to me. "Please forgive me, my prince," the dragon said, "I did not know who you were."

"How do you know I'm not lying?" I asked.

"I smell the scent of King Marek on you, my lord." The dragon responded. "Not to mention you look like your father."

"Oh." I said looking around. "Were you followed?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"But you were, Sespedis, but you were." A maniacal bark came from behind a boulder. A man the size of a boulder stepped out from behind one. He wore chain mail and a black surcoat. "Your younglings will most certainly be killed now."

"Why don't you fight me yourself instead of having innocent creatures do your bidding?" I demanded. "Are you too much of a coward to fight a seventeen year old, or are you just a lazy piece of shit? Maybe a bit of both?"

"Why you little runt!" The man growled stepping forward and drawing a white single edged long knife that was two feet long. "You'll pay for those insults…"

"How? By you giving me the payment or another one of your minions?" I asked.

"By me!" the man roared.

I smiled. "That's what I thought." I said as the man charged forward. I drew my sword and blocked an attack just in time to prevent my left arm from being cut. I kicked the man in the chest and he stumbled back a step. I attacked viciously and he blocked my attack and spun to try and elbow me. I spun out of the way and swung my sword to try and cut his hamstring. He blocked it with a bracer and swung his long knife at me. We fought back and forth for a minute before he drove me back to the river. I saw Firedrake and Maia standing on a little ledge just before coming down to the stream and they looked horrified. Ben appeared next to them and his face became panicked. I didn't want that in my mind at the moment, I had my opponent right where I wanted him, believing that he had the upper hand. I finally stopped retreating and locked our blades together. I stepped in closer and grabbed the hilt of his knife and then I twisted violently to the right and I took the knife with me. The man fell flat on his face and I stabbed downwards with my sword, impaling him through the heart. I pulled the sword out and searched for the sheath for the knife. I found a red sheath and took it off of the body. I looked at the dead man and muttered once again, "Ignis." I put the long white bladed knife into its sheath and looked to see Ben standing on the hill with a horrified expression on his face. Firedrake and Maia approached me, but I ignored them and I sheathed my sword and attached the knife sheath to my pants at the waist so that the hilt was parallel to the ground and on the left side. I did that so if I was in a fight, I could have easy access to it. I approached Ben and said, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Why did you kill him?" Ben asked.

"That's war." I answered.

Ben was still a white sheet when Firedrake and Maia came back. "Why didn't you take someone with you?" Firedrake demanded.

"I already told you, I can take care of myself." I said looking the dragon in the eye.

"It seems that every time you're alone you get attacked or you go looking for the danger." Maia said.

"You sound like my old Mentor." I muttered.

"Good, maybe that will put some sense into your head!" Firedrake exclaimed.

"How was I supposed to know that a dragon was hunting me?" I demanded glaring at Firedrake.

"I don't know, how are you supposed to know if you're not?"

"The same way you know that you are," I answered. "You don't!"

"Does it bother anybody else that the black dragon could just disappear like that?" Ben suddenly spoke up.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking at the human.

"After you killed the person, the dragon shimmered and disappeared." Ben stated, still looking shaken.

"The dragon was most likely a glamour, the person I killed could have been performing the magic but it is highly unlikely." I mused.

"Why is it unlikely?" Firedrake asked.

"Because, you cannot talk to your own glamour." I answered. "Where're Guinevere, Sorrel, and Twigleg?"

"Back at the camp, why?" Maia asked.

"Because I have a feeling that this guy didn't hunt us down alone." I answered grimly. I sprinted towards the camp and found Twigleg and Sorrel in cages, and Guinevere hogtied. I silently drew my sword and spun around just in time to stop an axe from splitting me like firewood. "Hello there." I grunted.

"Hello, Jayko." The man spat. He smelled like ale and stale cheese.

I shoved him backwards and took my opponent in. He was my height and stockier. He had red hair and a red beard. His brown eyes seemed to flicker with an inner fire. I twirled my sword at my side and asked, "So, do I have to kill you too or can you walk away from here peacefully and return to your family?"

"I would prefer to kill you first, then have my way with the girl. She could make me a profit in the slave markets in Garrison." The man leered.

"So be it." I said darkly as I drew the newly acquired knife with my left hand. I charged forward and when I was three steps away from him I threw the knife and he deflected it, but that didn't matter. I stabbed him through the stomach with my sword before he had a chance to bring his axe back in and deflect my thrust. Blood gurgled from his mouth and he collapsed onto his knees in front of me as I pulled the sword out. "You disgust me." I said with anger. "You talk about killing and raping as if it were fun! You fight for all the wrong fucking reasons! I hope that if there is some sort of hell that you burn in it for eternity!" I held the sword by my head before swinging it down and removing the man's head. The body fell forwards and the head rolled backwards. I cleaned my sword blade on the back of the dead man's torso and sheathed it. I turned around and saw Ben, Firedrake, and Maia standing at the edge of the camp with odd looks on their faces. "I won't apologize for what I am." I said. "I will apologize that you had to see this side of me though."

"It's not your fault…" Maia started.

"In a way it is." I interrupted. "I should have just asked for directions and found the cave myself that way no one else had to be involved. Instead I took your help and involved the six of you in a war that you should not be involved in."

"It was our choice." Firedrake said. "And in _our _way we chose to be involved."  
"Firedrake's right," Ben said, "we did choose to bring you to the Rim of Heaven and we did in a way choose to become involved with you."

"Not trying to interrupt here, but can you let us out of here?" Sorrel called.

"Sorry!" I called. I pointed at the cage and murmured, "Patefio." The cage opened and Sorrel walked out of the cage with Twigleg close behind her. I bent down and picked up my new knife and gently tossed it to Ben. "Go untie your sister." I said as the human boy caught the knife. I sheathed my sword and took a deep breath to calm myself down from the fights.

Ben nodded and took the knife and went to work on untying his sister. I looked over at Firedrake and Maia and motioned them to follow me. I left the camp and the two dragons followed. "What is it?" Maia asked.

"I'll find my own way from here." I said. "I can't take any more chances with the humans and Sorrel."

"What do you mean?" Firedrake asked.

"What point did you reach the camp?" I asked.

"Just as you threw the knife." Maia said.

"Why?" Firedrake asked.

"Because, the man I killed said that after I fell he would rape Guinevere and then sell her in the slave market back in Gaura. If me endangering her like that keeps happening, I cannot allow it to happen and I will leave. As it is, I'm endangering everyone because the fights that will happen from here to the Rim will only get more intense if the keep finding us." I answered looking out at the horizon.

"So you'll just endanger yourself then?" Firedrake asked.

"Better one life than six." I said flatly.

"Jayko." Maia gasped.

"It's the truth." I said turning to face the two dragons. "But it's your guys' call if I should leave or not as of now. But I am telling you that if another attack threatens the humans, I will leave."

"I don't think that you should leave." Maia said. "Firedrake?"

Firedrake seemed to be taking my arguments in deep thought and I hoped that he would ask for me to leave. The male silver dragon finally came out of his thoughts and looked at me with his golden eyes. "You shouldn't leave." He said with finality. "I don't think that it's right to send you out to fight by yourself when we can help you out."

"Alright, I'll honor your decision." I said bowing to the two dragons.

"We should head back to the campsite." Firedrake said.

I nodded and the three of us headed back. We got back and I walked over to Guinevere and Ben. "I can erase the memories of what you saw and heard today if you'd like." I offered. "It will prevent psychological damage and harm from occurring."

Ben looked up at me and said shakily at first and then getting stronger as he spoke, "I…I think that…that I'll be alright. I want this experience with me. I want to know that there is a good and an evil. I want to remember what I felt when I realized that I was wrong believing that the world was only good."

"Guinevere?" I asked softly looking at the girl.

Guinevere was sitting huddled next to her brother and not looking at anybody. "What will fill the void of the area where the memory existed?" Guinevere asked in a flat, emotionless, voice.

"Nothing, it'll be like when you sleep." I answered.

"Then do it." Guinevere said looking up at me.

"Alright." I said. "You will not have any recollection of this moment either, only what comes after."

"Have you ever done this before?" Ben asked.

"Once." I answered. I placed my right hand on Guinevere's brow and closed my eyes. "Nullam duobus momentis et praeterita obliviscentes." I removed my hand from her brow and looked into her now closed eyes. I snapped my fingers and she woke up with a start. "How are you feeling?" I asked.

"I have a headache." Guinevere complained holding her head.

"It'll pass in time like all ailments." I said standing up. I walked over to Firedrake, Maia, Sorrel, and Twigleg and told them what I had done for Guinevere. "So do not bring up the fight where I killed the red head that threatened to rape her." I finished.

"What will happen if we do?" Sorrel asked placing her furry paws on her hips.

"She will experience the emotions that she felt at the time and not understand why. She will ask questions that she will not know the answer to. She could potentially be driven to madness and suicide." I answered. "Are those good enough reasons?"

"Yeah." Sorrel answered.

"That's what I thought." I said. "We should all get some rest before we head out tonight."

"I second that." Firedrake said with a yawn. Firedrake and Maia curled up on the spot and I went to a secluded area in the shade and closed my eyes. I definitely needed the rest as well because I was out in an instant.

I felt a constant poking on my ribs and I opened my eyes to see Sorrel standing over me. "It's time to go." She said.

"Alright, just give me a minute." I grumbled.

"Hurry up then." Sorrel said agitated.

"Yes ma'am." I said with a mock salute as I sat up. I stood up and put on my baldric and the knife I had acquired. I walked over to Maia, who was patiently waiting for me, and I jumped up and strapped myself in. "Ready whenever you are." I said to her.

"Ok, then you're ready." Maia informed me. She spread her wings and took off towards the mountains.  
I only now registered that the mountains looked like a dragon on how it was presented to the world. It only took about an hour or so of flight before I looked down and saw a monastery or something like that below us. "Are we landing there?" I called towards Maia's head.

"No, we're not." Maia called back.

"Alright, just checking." We flew towards the mountain range known as the Himalayas and I was impressed by their size. Maia flew us through some sort of pass and I saw that we were in a valley that somehow no one knew about. There was a decent sized lake in the middle of the valley and beautiful blue flowers surrounding the lake. We landed on a ledge and Maia looked back at me. I nodded at her and unstrapped myself. After I had dismounted, I looked back towards the lake and thought that I saw a shadow of another flying dragon over it, but the shadow passed.

"Welcome to the Rim of Heaven." Firedrake said to me.

"Thanks for bringing me here." I said bowing low to both dragons. "What's with the lake?"

"The Eye of the Moon?" Sorrel asked. "That's just there I guess."

"The blue flowers provide us with moondew for whenever we want to fly during the day." Maia said.

"Moondew?" I asked.

"Long story." Ben answered handing me my pack.

"I'll stick to not knowing I guess." I said with a small shrug.

"We should head in, I think that it might storm." said Firedrake.

The two dragons, humans, and the homunculus led me to a rock that had an indent at Firedrake's shoulder height, a good two feet taller than my standing height. Firedrake leaned against it and the rock swung open and formed a tunnel. Firedrake led the group inside and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was well lit inside. I was surprised to see that moonstones provided the light though, I had not known that they were capable of that. We walked through the tunnel and arrived in a large cavern and a group of forty or more dragons were there. They greeted Ben, Guinevere, Sorrel, Firedrake, Maia, and Twigleg but they did not know what to think of me. An elderly dragon stepped forward and sniffed me, which I personally thought was odd, and stepped back in shock. "Ahh," the elderly dragon said in a hoarse voice grounded down by age and experience. "We have a halfling."

There were gasps of shock and amazement throughout the assembled group and I took a cautious step backwards. "He came with us to get back home." Maia said.

"So, he is also an Other." The old dragon said. More gasps. "Tell me, Other, what is your parentage?"

"I think that you already figured that out." I said taking another step back.

"Which parent is what?" the old dragon asked.

"My father is a dragon and my mother is a human." I answered. "I'm young by both standards."

"You wish to get back home through the Rim of Heaven's passage?"

"Why else would I be here?"

"He has a temper this one does." The old dragon mused. "Firedrake, I want you to make the pilgrimage to the other World with this young man."

"But Slatebeard," Firedrake began.

"No buts." The old dragon said sternly. "I believe that the two of you were fated to meet, and that the two of you are fated to complete great tasks in the other world together."

"As you wish, Slatebeard." Firedrake said with a bow of his head.

"If the two of you would follow me." Slatebeard said.

I looked at Firedrake and he looked back at me. I shrugged and followed the old dragon through a passageway that led to a cavern with a man standing next to an opening of a cave with a broadsword. The man was huge, a great mountain of a man! I surmised that he was the guardian of the Rim of Heaven and I bowed to him. "Hello, Grandfather." I said.

"I was wondering when you would show up." The man said in an extremely deep voice. He had golden eyes and golden hair. The man was dressed in golden armor with moonstones set on the shoulder guards and the bracers. On his right hip was a massive two handed broadsword. "How's my daughter?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen her in ten years." I answered.

"Ranger training?"

"Yes, sir."

"You do know that you will become something like a Guardian due to your heritage, right?" my grandfather asked.

"No, sir, I didn't." I answered.

"I have a feeling that you've already been told but the memory was wiped out. I'll unblock it for you." My grandfather waved his left hand and a memory of me standing inside of the Dragon Rider's tomb came back to me. I had met a spirit named Lorelei. My head started to hurt as the conversation came back to me. When the memory finished I looked at my grandfather and he had a sympathetic look on his face. "You will have to survive another year though, my boy. If you do, you will become an unstoppable weapon in the war that's waging."

"Yes, sir." I said. "If I may know, where does that lead to?" I pointed towards the exit or entrance.

"Home."

"Where?"

"Right in the mountains of Fable." My grandfather said. "If I'm correct, the exit should bring you to a cave and if you follow a passageway on your right, you will enter the castle. Go down the steps and take a left. From there you must take a right at the second door and then you will open it and enter the room. You will see your father there."

"Thanks." I said as I walked towards the white light.

"Beware of the return." My grandfather warned as I walked through.

I turned around but it was already too late, I was on the other side. I was home again. I took a step backward and Firedrake emerged from the wall in front of me. "So, we follow that man's directions or not?" he asked.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**An Unexpected Duplication **

I kept staring at the wall that I had walked through and Firedrake finally nudged me with his muzzle. I started and looked at the dragon with glazed over eyes. "What did he mean 'beware of the return?'" I asked.

"Don't ask me, I don't know." Firedrake answered with a shrug. "But are we going to follow his directions or not?"

"We follow them." I answered a bit uncertain.

"Are you sure?"

"We follow them." I said firmly this time.

"Good, but when you said that these Gauran people created Nettlebrand, did they do it for a reason or just as an experiment?"

"I believe that they did it just to hunt dragons." I answered truthfully.

Firedrake shuddered and I didn't blame him. If I were a dragon, fully, I would've shuddered at the notion too. I motioned for the dragon to follow me and I followed my grandfather's instructions. "So, he said to go down the steps and then take a left, correct?" Firedrake asked.

I thought back and recalled the memory and the directions. I closed my eyes and reopened them. I looked at Firedrake and answered, "Yes. Then we'll continue on until we come across a second door on our right and go through that."

"Alright." Firedrake said.  
We followed my grandfather's instructions and wound up outside the room that he said that we would end up at. "I'll be damned." I breathed as I saw a throne. "The Guardian was right." The throne was made of pure diamond and had an internal dancing black fire within it. The fire inside of the diamond throne mystified me, but I didn't know if it was real or just a trick of the light.

"It's real." A voice said. I looked up from the throne and saw the captain of the guard walk forward. "We weren't sure that you had survived."

"I lived." I said looking the captain in the eyes. "I hope I didn't disappoint you, Captain."

The captain was dressed in plate armor with chain mail underneath. On his back was a broadsword and on his hips were another pair of swords. "No my prince, you did not disappoint me." The captain said smoothly.

"Good, I hate to disappoint." I said watching the captain wearily. There was something different about him than last time, and I couldn't put my finger on it. "Where's my father?" I asked.

"He is…occupied at the moment." The captain said.

"With what?" I asked.

"War council."

"So I take it that the war with the Gaurans did break out?" I asked placing a hand on the hilt of my knife at the small of my back.

"It has," the captain answered. "Lets just say that the reports are that they even sent a squadron of minotaurs into the other world."

"I know," I said. "I met them."

"How did you fare?" The captain asked placing both of his hands on the pommels of his swords at his waist.

"Well enough." I replied taking a small step back.

"Who's the silver dragon?"

"I'm Firedrake," Firedrake answered. "I came with Jayko from my world and the Rim of Heaven."

"Did you now?" The captain asked. "Interesting. Very interesting."

"Firedrake, I think that it'd be best if you stepped outside of the room for a while." I said not looking at the dragon behind me.

"Why?" Firedrake asked.

"Just do it!"

The captain narrowed his eyes at me and I loosened the knife in its sheath. Firedrake stepped back out of the room and the captain took a step forward. "What's the matter, my prince?" he asked.

"There's something off about you." I said. "I don't know what the hell it is, but there is something there."

"Do you really know who I am, boy?" the captain asked in a deathly quiet voice.

"I'm guessing that you're a Purist assassin." I answered.

The captain chuckled and then burst into full out laughter. "You're right about one thing, boy," he said. "But you're totally wrong about the other." He looked at me and I saw that his eyes were now locked onto me. "I am an assassin."

"Perfect." I mumbled to myself as the captain unsheathed both of his swords and charged forward. I unsheathed the knife and threw it at a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It cut the chains holding the massive chandelier up and it fell just in time to crush the charging captain's legs.

"Ahhh." The captain cried out in pain. "Damn it! Son of a bitch this hurts!"

I kicked the swords out of his hands and picked one up. "You made a shitty mistake betraying my father's trust." I said looking down at the broken man. There was the sound of running feet and a door slamming open. "I can't believe that you just fucking attacked me!"

"This is war, get used to it." The man gasped.

I balanced the sword in my right hand and then my left hand. I flipped it so that the blade was pointing down. I knelt down really quickly and the man cried out in pain again. I had speared his right arm. "Whom do you work for?" I asked.

"Go to hell!"

I moved the sword around in his arm and he cried out. "That's not the answer I'm looking for." I chided the man. "You have two answers left before I cut off the arm entirely and let you bleed out."

"Go fuck yourself."

I sighed and moved the sword in a different direction. More cries of pain. "Last chance, bub." I said. "Whom do you work for?"

"The Gaurans."

I rolled my eyes and looked down at him. "I know that, but whom specifically?"

"Their king!" The man cried. "Take that out of me, please!"

"What in the name of Lunar is going on here?" my father's voice boomed through the room.

"Just interrogating an assassin." I answered nonchalantly.

"Luke, a word." My father said with a sigh.

I looked down at the man and pulled the sword out of his arm and he cried. I threw the sword away in disgust and walked over to my father. "What?" I asked.

"You can't just torture the Captain of my guard!" my father exclaimed.

"He just tried to assassinate me!" I cried. "What the hell would you have done?"

"Killed him." My father answered without hesitation.

"Did you know he was an assassin?" I asked my father.

"No, I didn't know." My father said looking at the man. He clapped and men dressed similarly to the former captain entered. I now noticed that they all had a hawk clutching a sword on their chests. The men went and picked up their ex-captain and brought him to who-knows-where. "That's our family sigil." My father explained when he saw my gaze directed at the sigil on the chests of the guards.

"Firedrake, you can come back in!" I called. I then looked at my father and asked, "Sigil?"

"Family crest." My father answered. "Firedrake?"

"A silver dragon that I met in the other world." I answered.

"I see. You're companion?"

"I guess so, yeah." Firedrake came in and walked over to my father and me. I introduced them and it dawned on me that I didn't know what kind of a dragon my father was. "Dad, what kind of a dragon are you?" I asked.

"I'm a black dragon, son." My father answered.

"So I'm half black dragon?" My father nodded confirmation. "Wow."

"There's one more thing that you should know." My father said looking at me. "You have a younger twin brother."

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

"Your mother agreed that splitting the two of you up was the best thing when she left during the Purist movements." My father said sadly. "Your brothers name is Jacen."

"You told me that I was your only child." I said pacing in front of Firedrake and my father.

"I didn't know who else might have been listening to our conversation." My father said clasping his hands behind his back.

"Why split us up? And if you had a son here why claim me?" I asked stopping and looking at my father.

"Make it harder for the Purists to find the two of you and I claimed you because you are still my son."

"I don't get politics." I muttered.

"I still don't get politics after three hundred years." My father said.

That really caught my attention. "You're three hundred years old?" I asked in disbelief.

"I'm actually five hundred and twelve years of age," my father answered. He seemed to be amused by my disbelief. "I've only been in politics for three hundred of those years."

"So you've been king for how long exactly?" I asked.

"My father was the first king, you should know that from your studies and the stories," my father said. "I became king after he did about one hundred and ten years ago."

I whistled and shook my head. I looked over at Firedrake and asked, "How old are you, Firedrake?"

"Me?" Firedrake said. "I'm young for a dragon. I'm close to my twentieth birthday."

I shook my head again and looked at my father and then back at Firedrake and then back at my father. "I'm pissed that you kept another secret from me, dad." I said.

"I understand that."

"When will I get to meet him?" I asked.

"Meet who?"

"My twin?"

"Tonight at dinner." My father said turning away from me.

"When do I get that armor and bow I was promised back at the academy?" I asked.

My father stopped and turned around. He was looking at me with amusement. "The armor and the bow that you seek are in your quarters," he said. "I'll have a servant show you to them."

"Alright," I said. "I'll see you at dinner."

My father nodded and walked away. A servant walked in as soon as my father walked out and she bowed to me. "Follow me, your Highness." She said in a timid voice.

"As you wish." I said. I beckoned Firedrake to follow me and I followed the servant girl out of the throne room and into the hall that Firedrake and I had previously occupied. She led us farther down the hallway and to another flight of stairs. The stairs wound up the side of a massive column that was ten feet in diameter. She led Firedrake and me up the stairs and down another hallway to a room that had two guards with red helms. They stood at attention when we approached and the servant girl opened the heavy oak door that was framed with iron. "Will that be all, m' lord?" she asked.

"That will be all," I said. "Thank you."

She bowed and shut the door once Firedrake and I were inside. The room was massive! It had a balcony overlooking the rest of the city, a bathroom, and a massive bed with a canopy over it, a weapons rack with an assortment of swords, axes, maces, and morning stars. The room's floor was marble and the entrance to the balcony was large enough for a dragon to enter and exit comfortably without squeezing or any sort of discomfort. Hanging on an armor rack was black plate armor with the Porter sigil etched in gold on the chest. I walked over to it and I immediately knew that this armor was mine. Chain mail hung from a separate manikin and there was a shield as well propped against the weapons rack. I picked up the shield and was surprised at how light it was for how heavy it looked. The shield was a kite shield with the Ranger motif of the eclipse on it. The shield was black and the motif was red. On the inside of the shield were two leather straps to hold my arm in and a handle to grasp to give me extra leverage and power when I found myself in a fight. I put on the shield and was pleased that it covered a lot of my body. "Quite an impressive room." Firedrake remarked.

I turned to him and set the shield down. "It is." I agreed. I took off my baldric, sword, leather jerkin and the bracers and set them on the ground. "Do you even want to be here?" I asked the silver dragon.

"I'm not sure," Firedrake answered. "I don't like the prospect of having to fight in a war. My fire doesn't even harm, it heals."

"I'll ask my father to let you go back to the Rim of Heaven." I said taking my shirt off. I shook my head in dismay at the tattered appearance of the shirt. "I'm sure that he'll let you go back, I mean you have friends there."

"I would appreciate it if you did but your grandfather, the Guardian, said that our Fates were intertwined." Firedrake pointed out.

"I know," I sighed. "But I don't think that you should be involved in this war if you don't want to be."

"Same could be said for you." Firedrake countered.

I ignored that last comment and I walked over to the dresser by my bed and opened it and I was absolutely floored by what I saw in there. There were an assortment of different clothes in there ranging from silk, cloth, cotton, to even the other worlds polyester. I grabbed a black tunic and black pants and headed to the bathroom. "You can go out onto the balcony if you'd like." I said turning my head to look at Firedrake.

"I'm fine inside here, thank you." Firedrake said curling up into a ball on the floor.

"Suit it yourself." I said as I entered the bathroom. One thing that I liked about this was that the bathrooms in this world were similar to the bathrooms in your world. I stripped, took a shower, shaved, and dried off. I put on the new clothes and exited the bathroom. I leaned against the doorway and smiled to myself when I saw Firedrake sleeping peacefully on the floor. I watched the silver dragon for a couple of minutes and then walked over to where I had put my sword and knife. I put the baldric on and put the knife on as well. I debated whether or not to take a couple of throwing knives and put them in my boots before I left for dinner, but I decided against the idea. I slipped on a pair of socks and then my boots and headed for the door. I opened the door and the two guards immediately went to attention at the door. I sighed and asked the one to my left, "How do I get to the dining hall?"

"I will take you there, sir." The guard said in a respectful tone. He bowed to me and stepped forward and said, "If you would please follow me, my lord."

I nodded and followed the guard through the maze of hallways, corridors, and side passageways, until we finally reached the dining hall. "Thank you." I said. "What is your name?"

"My name is William, sir," the guard said. "William Downey."

"Thank you for your service, William Downey," I said. "You, uh, may return to your previous post."

"Yes, sir." William said. He saluted me and bowed before he walked the way we had come.

I took a deep breath before I opened the doors to the dining hall and then I let it out as I walked in. I was aware of the many eyes that fell on me as I walked towards the main table. The table was arranged in a U-shape where my father said in the middle with my mother sitting at his left. I approached the table and bowed to my father and mother and walked around the table and sat at the empty chair on my father's right. Sitting on my right was a person my age that looked almost exactly like me except for his hair color and his eye color. I looked at him and said, "Hello, I'm Jayko."

"Jacen." The person said as we shook hands. "You must be my twin brother."

"I must be." I said as we released hands. Dinner went on and once everyone was done eating, they were dismissed, with the exception of everyone at the main table. My father stood up and everyone else stood up.

"Jayko, come and formally be introduced to the court as my heir." My father said gesturing for me to stand in front of everyone.

"Yes, sir." I said. I bowed and walked out from behind the table and stood in full view of everyone present.

"This is my first born son, Luke Porter," my father said. "He is the older brother of Jacen, youngest Ranger ever on record to graduate, and now it has been deemed that it is time for him to return to his true home…Fablestar." My father paused and there were murmurs amongst the gathered. "With the war in the East now fully underway, I fear that even now the Gaurans will try to strike hard and swift here."

"Haven't they already tried that?" a man asked. I looked at him and saw that he was dressed in silver robes.

"Yes they have already tried, Fireslate." My father admitted. "They tried to assassinate Luke when he arrived here."

"I take it that you're referring to your ex-Captain?" another man asked. He was dressed in all black and had a fiery look in his golden eyes. He also had a black goatee, but a baldhead.

"That is exactly what I am referring to, Nightwave." My father said nodding.

"Well then, we must act." Nightwave said.

"How will we act?" Jacen spoke up.

"That is the question that we need to answer, isn't it princeling?" Fireslate asked.

"A counter-offensive." I said. There was a shocked silence in the room and everyone looked at me. I looked up and said, "It makes sense, attack them while they're attacking us. We have air superiority over them. We can perform air raids against their cities destroy troop morale. If we can do that and force a major battle instead of sieges, I believe that we have a better shot at winning this war than sitting back and letting them come to us."

"The kid makes sense." A man wearing golden robes with a completely baldhead acknowledged my point.

"We don't have the resources to do that though, that's the problem." My mother spoke up surprising me.

"Then we take it slow," I said. "Hit 'em hard and hit 'em fast. Force their hand so that they become desperate enough to launch something big and foolhardy. Force them to make the first mistake and we'll take advantage of it."

"Alright, I'll send out plans to the generals in the morning. Luke, I advise that you start using your full, real, name again." Nightwave said.

"Yes, sir." I said bowing.

"Alright everyone, I think that is enough discussions about war and despair for one day," my father said. "Everyone here is free to retire back to their quarters."

I bowed and looked at Jacen, who was smiling at me. He signaled for me to follow him out of the room and I did after the group disbanded. "What is it?" I asked.

"Do you have any idea how lonely it is?" Jacen asked me.  
"Trust me, I do." I said.

"It's good to finally meet you, father's told me a lot about you."

"He never told me about you." I said looking down at the floor.

"He did that to protect you, I don't know why," Jacen said. "You received better training than I did."

"What did you do for seventeen years?" I asked.

"Same thing you did, just at a less rigorous pace." Jacen answered.

The two of us walked in silence for a couple of minutes and Jacen finally led me to a balcony overlooking a garden filled with blue flowers and a pond. Jacen sat on the rail and I leaned against a column. "What was life like as a pampered prince?" I asked crossing my arms.

"I wasn't that pampered," Jacen laughed. "If I wanted something, father made me do it myself."

"What do you like to do in your spare time?"

"Read, study tactics, practice my archery and my swordsmanship." Jacen answered. "You?"

"Never had any spare time at the academy." I answered simply.

Jacen raised an eyebrow and then asked, "What was your strongest subject then?"

"Tactics," I said. "Then it was swordplay, archery, throwing knives and spears, and my worst subject was using siege weapons."

"Wow," Jacen said wistfully shaking his head. "They certainly teach you a variety of things down in Agra, don't they?"

"They certainly do." I answered looking out over the garden.

"Does your sword have a name?"

"What?" I asked looking over at my twin.

"Does your sword that father had made for you have a name?" Jacen repeated.

I shook my head. "Not yet," I answered. "I haven't thought of a good one yet."

"My sword doesn't have the greatest of names, but I take pride knowing that it's mine." Jacen said unsheathing his blade from his baldric. Jacen's sword had a blue hilt with a blue cross guard as well and a silver blade. Set in the pommel was a sapphire the size of an acorn. "This is _Leon_, I suppose you know what that means in the old tongue?"

"Swift Death." I answered.

Jacen nodded, "Yeah that's her name."

I unsheathed my sword and held it out in front of me. I couldn't think of any name with significance, but I knew that this sword was mine. "I think that I'll name the sword _Jayko_." I said.

Jacen smiled at me and I looked from my sword to him. "Odd choice." Jacen stated.

"Why's that?" I asked. "Have a problem with me naming it after myself?"

"Nah, it isn't narcissistic at all," Jacen said still smiling. "It's just that from what I read of your file, you chose the name Jayko for yourself at the academy because of your quickness and agility. Do you actually know what jayko means? It isn't just a bird, the bird was named after it."

"What does jayko mean?" I asked curiously.

"Jayko means, Destroyer." Jacen answered.

I looked at the sword and saw that the letters were being engraved in the blade. _Jayko_ was etched into the blade with some sort of magic that I didn't cast and I looked at Jacen. "So I inadvertently named myself Destroyer?" I asked meekly.

"Correct," Jacen said nodding. "What's really odd is that dad doesn't want you to keep that name."

"Why? It's terrible! I named myself something that I cannot abide by!" I exclaimed in shock. Even though I had only known Jacen for about an hour, I felt like I knew him for my entire life. "I can't have that around on my conscience for my entire life. Can you not think of the repercussions?"

"I can think of quite a few actually." Jacen acknowledged.

"Oh, here comes the Destroyer!" I said slumping against the column. "I can see it now. Everyone will be afraid of me if I'm part of an army that conquers towns!"

"They'll be afraid of you regardless." Jacen said sheathing his sword. "But wanna know something?"

"What?"

"People will still go on living their lives! It doesn't matter what other people think of you, it's what you think of yourself! Your entire life so far has been about pleasing other people, have you ever thought about pleasing yourself for once?"

I snapped my gaze to Jacen and glared at him. "You don't know me well enough to judge me like that."

"Damn right I don't know you! Give me a chance and maybe we'll get to know one another." Jacen said calmly, yet sternly.

I opened my mouth to give a retort, but I closed it again. Jacen was right we didn't know one another. I let out a sigh and sheathed my sword. "I guess I'll ask the same from you." I said softly.

"What's that?" Jacen asked tilting his head to my left.

"Give me a chance, too." I said looking at my twin.

"Aye, I can do that." Jacen said with a smile. He held out his right hand and I grasped it. "Brother?" he asked.

"Brother."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**Assignments**

I had now been living in the castle for three days and I still had to be escorted around by a guard or two. I found it a bit annoying that I had to be supervised, but the guards simply wouldn't leave me. Over the course of the three days, Jacen and I had gotten to know each other extremely well. We spent almost the entire span of one day together at a single time just getting to know one another and the other's habits. I found that Jacen liked much of the same things that I did and that he really liked to hunt. He liked to sail, I didn't. We sparred a couple of times with swords and found that we were equally matched. I had never had an equal before at the academy, so it was a new experience that I enjoyed. Where Jacen was stronger, I was quicker. Jacen used a two handed technique that I disliked because it left you vulnerable to a quick counterattack. My sword had a hand-and-a-half hilt, meaning I could wield it with one hand or two. My defense was a lot sounder than Jacen's was, but his attacks seemed to be more calculated than mine, whereas mine just came off of instinct. I was a better marksman than he was; we quickly found that out when we went to the archery range. In the field of tactics, I far exceeded him. Jacen had a great mind for it, but mine was excellent. That's starting to sound narcissistic again, but it was true. Whenever we played chess, I would win.

Now on the third day, I was sitting on the balcony outside my room talking to Firedrake when there was a knock at the bedroom door. "Come in," I shouted. "It's open."

The door opened with a creak that I had become accustomed to and my father walked in followed by my twin brother and three other men. Each of the three men wore different armor. The first man wore all black armor and had a serious expression on his face like he never laughed in his life. He had scars on his face and golden eyes. At his waist was a falchion and on his right waist was a dagger. I noticed that he was wearing plate armor, they all were. The second man was wearing golden armor and had a youthful expression. He didn't have any scars, but in his golden eyes I could see a hidden fire. At his right waist was a hand sword and at his left were two daggers. The final man was wearing silver armor and had silver hair and the look of an experienced warrior. He had a calm demeanor and a look of determination and grit in his golden eyes. He had two swords, each sheathed at a hip, and a dagger hilt protruding from his left boot. The small group stopped at the place where my room met the balcony and I stood up out of the chair I was sitting in.

"What can I help you with, father?" I asked.

"You are going to get your assignment today." My father said not looking pleased about it. "Both of you are." He gestured at Jacen and me.

"What assignment?" Jacen asked.

"War assignment, your legion and your position in the legion." My father answered.

"Well, what are they?" I asked looking from my father to the three men.

"General Firestorm has decided to take you, Luke, into his legion and make you a Commander," my father said. The man in the black armor gave me a nod, so I nodded back. "General Thorne has decided to take you, Jacen, into his legion and make you a Commander as well." the man with the golden armor nodded at Jacen, and Jacen nodded back.

"What's the third general here for?" I asked.

"I'm here to take Firedrake home, as you had requested." The man answered. "I am General Silverwing."

Firedrake stood up and looked at the assembled group and asked, "You'd really take me back to the Rim of Heaven?"

"Of course," General Silverwing said. "Luke said that you didn't want to be a part of this war, and we don't want to force you to be a part of it."

"Thank you," Firedrake said bowing. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow."

"When do we leave, General Firestorm?" I asked.

"Tonight." The general replied in a gruff voice.

"What about us, General Thorne?" Jacen asked.

"Tomorrow morning." The general replied in a sagely type of voice.

"Good, now that everyone knows where they are going, I'm suggesting that you say your good byes and then get some rest." My father said.

Jacen, Firedrake, and I bowed to my father and he left with the three generals. Jacen turned to me and shook his head. "I knew this was going to happen." He said.

"What was going to happen?" I asked.

"This!" Jacen exclaimed gesturing about. "The Council had been pressuring father for the past couple of days to send the two of us out to war to help. Apparently they saw us sparring and were impressed. From what I've heard, Firestorm's going to take his army and try to liberate Fort Ranok."

"And what about Thorne?" I asked.

"There have been reports showing that the Gaurans are going to try to end this war as quickly as they can by striking the capital. They're going to try to find the Rim of Heaven and enter the castle that way." Jacen said.

"So Thorne's taking his troops there to reinforce it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure." Jacen said shaking his head.

"Well, either way we're not in a good situation." I said.

"True to that." Jacen muttered.

"Will the dragons living in the Rim of Heaven be in danger if the Gaurans invade?" Firedrake asked.

"Possibly." Jacen and I said at the same time.

"That's why Throne is going to most likely bring us to reinforce the Rim, to make sure that doesn't happen." Jacen said.

"That's a relief." Firedrake said.

I walked over to where my armor sat on its manikin and closed my eyes. "You alright?" I heard Jacen ask me.

I opened my eyes and turned around to see Jacen looking at me with concern. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll see if I can make my way to the Rim of Heaven after we've liberated Fort Ranok." I said.

"Why?" Jacen asked.

"Because, I have a feeling that the Rim of Heaven is going to be Ground Zero." I answered. Firedrake looked at me quizzically and I clarified, "The place that everything happens. I want to be there to help make a difference."

"Well, good luck with Fort Ranok first," Jacen said. "There are only supposed to be three thousand Gaurans there."  
"What's the size of Firestorm's force?" I asked.

"Roughly one thousand." Jacen replied.

"And we're laying siege to them?" I asked incredulously.

"That sounds about right."

"Are they insane!" I cried. "Three to one odds! That'll never work statistically speaking!"

"Another thing about Firestorm's force," Jacen said. "They're all dragons, with one exception."

"Me." I said. Jacen nodded. "We'll get there in two days time!"

"You better put your armor on, brother," Jacen said. "Night will soon be upon us and then you'll have to leave for war."

I walked towards Jacen and we embraced. "Good luck brother, be safe." I said to him.

We stepped apart and Jacen looked at me with a gleam in his eye. "I'll do the best that I can," he said. "I can make no guarantees in life. But you better stay safe."

I smiled and said, "I can't make any guarantees either."

Jacen and I chuckled and we bowed to one another. Jacen then walked out of the door and shut the door behind him. I looked at Firedrake and he looked back at me. "Take care of yourself out there." He said. "I won't be able to heal you like I have been able to."

"I know, but I have armor now," I said. "I didn't have armor that could protect me that well in your world." I turned and faced the manikin with my black plated armor on it and took my white shirt off. I walked over to the dresser and removed another black shirt, a long sleeved one, and slipped that on. I turned and faced Firedrake and said, "Take care of yourself when you get back. Say hello to Maia, Sorrel, Ben, and Guinevere for me too."

"I will." Firedrake said.

"Thank you." I turned back once more to the manikin and removed the black breastplate. I removed the components of the plate armor one by one until I came down to the chain mail. I slipped the chain mail over my head and started putting on the pieces of the plate armor. I started from bottom to top. I put on the boots and the sabatons over the top of the boots to protect my feet. I then attached the greaves to the sabatons and around my lower leg. On my knees I put a poleyn on each one. To protect my thighs I attached a cuisses to each poleyn and secured it to my thigh. The chain mail came down to mid thigh, so I was protected in the groin a bit, but not much. I put on the faulds next to protect my waist and groin area. My breastplate attached to the faulds and I strapped that on with ease. Next came the shoulder guards, or the pauldrons. After the pauldrons I put on the cowters, or the elbow guards. I put on my bracers and then my plated gauntlets. Finally, I put on my barbute Y shaped helm. I grabbed my sword and sword belt from where it hung on the weapons rack and belted it on so that my sword was on my left hip. I attached the knife to the back of the sword belt and grabbed the bow that I had just gotten. It was a black longbow that could shoot four hundred yards. The quiver I had held thirty arrows and I strapped that onto my back. I put my shield on my left arm and carried my bow in my right. I turned and faced Firedrake one last time. "I hope that this isn't the last time that we see one another." I said.

"I hope so, too." Firedrake said nuzzling me affectionately.

"Be safe, Firedrake." I said walking out of the room.

"You too, Luke," I heard Firedrake say softly as I left the room. "You too."

A guard led me to the tower where I was supposed to meet General Firestorm and I thanked him. He saluted me and then walked away. A black dragon, about ten feet larger than Firedrake, landed in front of me. "Are you ready, Commander Porter?" she asked. I could tell because the horns were straight and the feminine voice.

"Yes, ma'am." I replied.

"Good, General Firestorm is waiting in the sky, he sent me to come and get you." The black dragon said. "I am the General's second in command, I am Commander Nightwing, any questions?"

"No ma'am." I said.

"Good," Commander Nightwing said obviously pleased. "Then you can climb on."

I nodded and jumped onto her back the same way that I had done with Maia. I strapped myself in and made sure that everything was in order. Commander Nightwing spread her wings and took off into the air. We flew above the castle and I was amazed at how it looked at night. It looked like a small yellow dot on a black piece of paper. We flew to the rest of the dragons and I was pleasantly shocked to see that they were of all the colors. A black dragon flew towards us and Commander Nightwing slowed down. "Did you get him?" the dragon shouted in General Firestorm's voice.

"Yes sir," Commander Nightwing shouted back. "He didn't hesitate."

"That's good, Commander," the General shouted. "Now lets go liberate Fort Ranok before the Gauran bastards try to launch another offensive out of there!"

With that said, the General turned around and flew back to the main party. Together as a flock, we flew for an entire day until we reached the command tents that had already been set up by the troops that had escaped from the Fort. All of the dragons landed and I dismounted from Commander Nightwing. I cracked my neck and stretched and turned around to thank her for the lift when I saw a beautiful brunette standing in her place. She had two daggers and an ax as her weapons and she wore a breastplate and chain mail. The woman raised an eyebrow and asked in Commander Nightwing's voice, "Are you going to say something Commander Porter or are you going to stand there and gape at me all day?"

"Sorry, ma'am." I apologized looking down at the ground. "I just wanted to thank you for giving me a lift here."

"No problem, Commander Porter." She said amused. "Follow me to the General's tent so that we can make an attack plan. That's why the General chose you. You're supposed to be a genius when it comes to tactics."

My face flushed in embarrassment and I looked down at the ground once more. "I wouldn't say genius." I muttered.

"Then what would you call it?" Commander Nightwing asked placing her hands on her hips. "From what I've heard at the age of ten you were correcting your teachers on tactics."

If it were possible for my face to get any redder, I'm pretty sure it did at that point. "I felt that it was my duty to point out their flaws in their reasoning and in their tactics." I said defensively.

"In other words, you were pointing out that they were wrong." Commander Nightwing stated.

"Yes." I said sheepishly.

"That's what I thought." Commander Nightwing said with a smile. "Come on, kid, we'd better get to the command tent before the General wonders where we're at."

I nodded and followed Commander Nightwing to a tent that was blue and black with a wide opening. I removed my helm and held it in the crook of my right arm. We saluted General Firestorm and he nodded for us to come around the massive table. Commander Nightwing stood at the General's left and I stood at his right. "These are the blueprints of the fort," General Firestorm said in his gruff voice. "What we need to do with our force is find a way inside without damaging the fort too badly and get our army inside." He paused and looked at me, "That's where you come in, Porter. I specifically chose you because of your quick ability to think and your ability to seem to know what the enemy is doing before they do. What do you think is the best course of action?"

I looked at the blueprints of the fort and my eyes were immediately drawn to a specific area. "What is this?" I asked pointing to the spot on the blueprints.

"We're not entirely sure."

"I think that those are tunnels," I said. "That seems to lead up to the gatehouse and a small team should be able to sneak into the tunnels and get inside." I traced the area and how it seemed to disappear only for it to reappear in the gatehouse. "If there's a diversion, the small group should be able to break away from the main force, get to the entrance of the tunnel and enter the fort through there. But I highly doubt it'd be that easy. I believe that the Gaurans are aware of the tunnel system and have men posted above the entrances with bows, crossbows, and a lot of other weapons. If we have a strike team in the sky that can rain hell from above and distract them, the small force will have a chance to get in unnoticed."

"And if they aren't unnoticed?" Commander Nightwing asked.

"Well then Commander, there will be one hell of a fight," I said not looking up from the blueprints. "There will most likely be a defensive force behind the entrance blocking the tunnel access and the small force will have to fight through that to get in. Once they're in, it's only a matter of getting to the gatehouse and opening the gate."

"What are we going to do about the three to one disadvantage of force size?" Commander Nightwing asked.

I looked up from the blueprints and looked at General Firestorm for an answer. "We'll fight to the last dragon," he said confidently. "We're more skilled than they are and if everyone of us here kills at least three of them, we have a shot at victory."

"Sir, if I may make a suggestion." I piped up. General Firestorm looked at me and gave me a slight nod. "Why not use other tactics of war?"

"What do you mean, Commander Porter?" General Firestorm asked narrowing his eyes.

I took a deep breath, what I was going to propose was not going to be a popular idea. "Why don't we poison their water supply?"

The tent fell deathly quiet and I closed my eyes for a brief second. I opened them and looked directly into General Firestorm's eyes. "Poison?" he said. "Where's the honor in that?"

"There isn't." I answered. "But my father, the king, gave us a job to do, get this fort back at all costs! Need I repeat that last bit? If we can weaken them somehow, then why don't we take the opportunity that is presented before us? They won't be able to hold the fort with dead and dying men!"

"Sir, he's got a good point." Commander Nightwing spoke up.

General Firestorm glared at me for a couple of more seconds and then looked away in deep thought. He finally came out of it and said, "Alright, we'll poison the water supply and wait a day for the effects to take place. Once that happens, we'll go through with the plan that Commander Porter has presented to us and he will be going along with the small force to the tunnel. Commander Nightwing will command the strike force from the sky and I will cause the diversion. Are there any questions?"

"I have one sir," I said. General Firestorm turned back and looked at me and placed his hands on his hips. "The poison that I have in mind, it's a neurotoxin, it doesn't take twenty four hours to start working. It starts working within the hour that it's administered."

"Get to the point, Porter, what's the question?" General Firestorm interrupted me.

"Why not attack tonight and finish this thing?" I asked.

"Because I said so." General Firestorm growled.

I bowed my head in a sign of submission and apologized, "Sorry, sir."

"There's nothing to apologize for, boy," General Firestorm growled. "Go get some rest if you can."

"Yes, sir." I said bowing.

Commander Nightwing led me out of the tent and towards a smaller tent, but big enough to accommodate a person with armor. She stopped outside of the tent and held out her arm barring me from entering the tent. I looked at her quizzically and she said, "I've never seen the General this upset."

"I didn't mean to piss him off." I muttered looking away from her and towards the moon.

"You didn't exactly piss him off," Nightwing said with amusement. "It's more of the fact that you seemed to take charge of that tent without meaning to."

"Exactly, without meaning to!" I cried. "I couldn't help it, it just came naturally!"

Nightwing chuckled and shook her head. "Get some sleep, kid," she said. "You'll need it for the attack tomorrow."

"Of course, Commander." I said bowing to her.

"Just call me Nightwing." She said bowing back.

I stood at the entrance to my tent stunned as Nightwing walked away. _Did she just bow to me?_ I thought. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and entered the tent. I saw a cot and a bowl with a pitcher next to it. Next to the cot was a manikin that I could put my armor onto, so I removed my armor and placed it onto the manikin. I went over to the cot next and laid down on it. I closed my eyes as my head hit the pillow and hoped that I wouldn't disappoint anybody tomorrow. I soon drifted off into a dreamless sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**Siege of Fort Ranok**

I woke up when and it was still dark outside. I took that as I had either slept for a couple of hours or that I hadn't slept at all. I chose that I had slept for a couple of hours. I got off of my cot and stretched. I put my armor back on and exited my tent. I saw Nightwing walking towards me and I stopped and waited for her to get to me. She stopped and nodded her head. I nodded mine and asked, "What's the plan?"

"You already know it." Nightwing answered with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Yes, but when will it start?" I asked.

"General Firestorm wants you to head towards the Northern side of the camp where you will meet your troops," Nightwing instructed. "From there you will lead them towards the entrance to the tunnel system and wait for the attack to begin before you actually make your move. Understand?" I nodded. "Good, we don't want anything to go wrong."

"No, we don't." I said strapping on my shield to my left arm. I finished strapping it on and held my helm in the crook of my right arm. I started heading towards the Northern side of the camp when I heard Nightwing call my name. I turned around and she wished me good luck. "You too." I replied. I turned back around and put my helm on. I reached the Northern side of the camp and saw that I had about one hundred men there. "Good day to you, men." I said as I stopped and observed them. All of them stopped talking and stood at attention. "At ease," I told them. "I'm young as most of you can see, and not very experienced in the ways of warfare. I am a fighter though, that much I can tell you. I will never ask more out of you than I won't ask out of myself. If you say that you can't continue on, I'll ask you for your reasons. If I find your reasons justifiable, I will dismiss you and let you fall behind. All of you here understand what our job is, correct?" Every head here nodded. "Good, I would have to hate to explain the plan more than once."

"Sir, just exactly how long until we can start?" a man asked.

"We wait until General Firestorm attacks the Fort, then we attack while their attention is adverted from us. Commander Nightwing will attack from the sky to draw attention from the archers so that we can get to the tunnel entrance," I answered. "Once we get to the tunnel that's the hard part. We cut our way through any man that's there, give no quarter for I'm guessing we shall receive none. We come out of the tunnel and into the gatehouse, open the gate and take out any opposition to us and we'll retake the Fort."

"Do you know the location of the entrance to the tunnel system?" another man asked.

"I do, that's why I was chosen to lead the mission." I answered. "Any more questions?" No questions came forward and I was pleasantly surprised that there weren't any questions about my age, where I came from, who I was, or what reason I had for joining the war. "Good, now lets get moving, we'll want to be in position by the time that General Firestorm and Commander Nightwing attack."

"Yes, sir!" the men said at once.

I walked forward and my men parted for me to allow me to get in front of them. They fell in behind me and I led them out of the encampment towards the fort. When we were one hundred yards or so away from the walls of the fort and covered by brush, I stopped the group. I put on my helm and silently drew my sword from my back. Cries of wounded men attacked the air and I knew that General Firestorm had started his attack on the fort. I signaled for my men to get ready and I looked towards the sky. I didn't see anything at first, and then I saw different colors of fire and lightning rain down from the sky. It was an awe-inspiring site to see. I made the signal to advance and led my men out of the brush and towards the tunnel's entrance. I saw the tunnel entrance was covered with bricks and it was where it should be based off of the blueprints that I saw, so I walked up to it and placed my right hand against it with my sword still in hand. "Frange!" I commanded in a soft voice so that only I could hear. The bricks shattered and I stepped away revealing a wooden door. I opened the door and held my sword at the ready. I didn't see anybody behind the door and went inside. I checked to see if it was safe for my men to follow me inside, and I deemed that it was. I signaled for them to enter and advanced slowly.

"We in the right place, Commander?" a man asked in a quiet voice.

"We are." I answered.

I led the men through the tunnel system to where the gatehouse should be and opened the tunnel exit there slowly. I saw that Gauran soldiers had their backs to us and I slowly crept in. We were roughly forty feet in the air. I slipped behind one of the Gauran soldiers and slit his throat while four of my men did the rest to the others. We carefully set the dead men down and went to work opening the portcullis. While my men did that I looked at the dead men. They wore chain mail and black surcoats, black full-faced helms, bracers, greaves, and pauldrons. Simple armor meant for infantry. "We have the portcullis opened, sir." A man said.

"Good, hopefully General Firestorm will start bringing the men into the fort." I said.

"Gerald, Kyle, Leon, Martin, and Ryan," a man's voice said at the door to the entrance of the room. "You guys in there?"

"Bar the door!" I whispered to my men quietly. They nodded and quietly moved things in front of the door and we stood ready facing the door.

"Ryan?" the man asked. "Why aren't you answering me?"

"Keir, what's the matter?" an extremely deep voice asked. The voice was very rich and suave, but had a hint of cruelty in it as well.

"Ryan isn't answering my calls and the door won't open, Lord Valdez." Keir answered.

"Sir!" a new voice called in a panic. "The portcullis is opened!"

"What? How?" Keir asked.

"Because, Captain," Valdez said smoothly. "The Warreans managed to get a strike team inside of the fort through the tunnel systems that I told you to collapse. The strike team opened the gate and now we lost this fort."

"My lord, we still have superior numbers." Keir stated, it sounded wimpy.

"What you don't know is that their entire force is led by General Firestorm," Valdez said still in a smooth voice. "That means that the force is all dragons. We're outmatched once they get inside of the fort."

"What should we do, my lord?" Keir asked.

"Kill as many as you can before you're killed," Valdez replied cruelly. "I suggest starting with the ones that opened the portcullis."

I signaled for my men to get ready and into defensive positions as the door was rammed into. My heart was accelerating and my breathing increased due to the adrenaline being pumped throughout my body. I forced myself to take deep breaths as the door shuddered and I was finally calmed enough to be prepared for anything. "Sir, what about the rest of the strike team?" one man asked. It was the same man that had told me that we had opened the portcullis.

"Go tell them to exit the tunnel systems and rejoin General Firestorm's main force." I replied.

"Yes, sir."

"May I know your name?" I asked.

"Barron, sir." The man replied.

"Nice to meet you," I said. The door shuddered one more time and I looked at it in concern. "Hurry, now, Barron."

Barron went into the tunnel system and the remaining three men and I stood in a wedge with me at the front. The door finally burst open and Gaurans poured into the room with war cries. They crashed against the wedge and we shoved them back. We fought with a ferocity that the Gaurans could not match, and we cut down every Gauran that came forth to challenge us. _Jayko_'s blade was wet with the blood of Gaurans and my shield was holding up well for how much I used it as a battering ram to knock my opponents off balance. Gauran soldiers kept coming into the gatehouse and we kept beating them back. Finally the waves ended and I looked around at the dead men on the floor. I counted one hundred and thirty two. I shook my head at what I considered to be unnecessary deaths and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and looked to see that it was one of the men that had remained by my side. "Sir, I think that we need to keep moving." he said.

"I agree." I said straightening up. "What is your name?"

"My name is Kian, sir." He was in golden armor.

I turned to the other two. "Your names?"

One in silver armor replied, "My name is Kryan, sir."

The one in black armor looked at me and bowed then answered, "My name is Xaldem."

"Good to meet all of ya," I said nodding my head. "I'm Luke. We should get moving towards the battlements and secure those if they haven't been secured already."

"Yes, sir." The three dragons said in unison.

I led them out of the gatehouse and outside into the morning light. It was a frigid morning and mist was rising off of the ground creating an eerie sight. The sounds of combat were everywhere as I led my small group through the battlements to see if there was any place that needed to be cleared out. There were a lot of war cries that came out of a lookout tower and a good thirty men came out of the tower. They charged towards the small group of four and I crouched down in a ready stance to get ready to meet their charge.

Instead of forming a wedge like we had in the gatehouse, we formed a line across the battlements with out shields and our swords. I cut through the first man and a mist of blood formed as my small group cut through our attackers. After the thirty Gaurans fell, we checked to see if there were any more inside of the tower. When we saw that there were none, we continued our sweep of the upper battlements. The sun was half way in the sky when the fighting seemed to stop. A black dragon flew towards us and landed in front of me. The dragon was female and she bowed to me. The dragon shimmered and in its place stood the human avatar of Commander Nightwing.

"Commander Nightwing," I said bowing. "What's the news?"

"Fort Ranok has been retaken," she replied. "The Gaurans were routed, but their commanding officer escaped. We do not know his name, for all of the prisoners are not mentioning it."

"Valdez." I whispered.

"What was that?" Nightwing asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing." I lied. "So, how many prisoners are there?"

"Two hundred and three." Nightwing said.

"That's all that would surrender?" Xaldem asked in shock.

"Correct, Xaldem," Nightwing said sadly. "Most took their own lives when we offered them the chance to surrender. It was horrible to watch."

"Does General Firestorm need us at all?" I asked.

Nightwing looked taken back at that question but answered anyway. "No, he doesn't, why?"

"Well, I'd like to bathe and get the scent of battle off of me," I replied. "I would like to clean my armor and my weapons as well. But if General Firestorm needs to see me at all or my men, I will refrain from doing that."

"You are free to bathe," Nightwing said. I could tell that she believed I had ulterior motives. "Xaldem, show him where the baths are in the fort."

"Yes, ma'am." Xaldem said. He stepped next to me and said, "Follow me please, sir."

"Of course, Xaldem." I said.

Xaldem led me down stairs from the battlements and through a maze of barracks until we reached a room that had baths. "Here we are sir." he said.

"If it is my place to ask, what is your relationship to Commander Nightwing?" I asked looking at Xaldem.

Xaldem removed his helm and I got a good look at his face. It was pretty handsome. He had a strong jaw line, defined cheekbones, and his eyes were an odd golden color. They were more like amber than they were golden. "Nightwing is my mate, sir." he replied.

"I see. I'm sorry for intruding on your personal matters." I said bowing.

"There is no need to bow to me, sir." Xaldem said. "You are of higher rank than I."

"I feel that there is a need to bow to you, Xaldem," I said. "You are a dragon, I am not. I'm sure that you could figure that out by my name."

"The way you fought made it look like you were a dragon, sir."

"I am a Ranger, Xaldem," I answered. "The youngest ever to graduate from the academy."

I turned and was about to enter the baths when I heard Xaldem ask, "What is your Ranger name then, sir?"

I turned back around and looked Xaldem in the eyes. I showed him my bloody sword and then wiped the blade clean with a rag on my belt. "The same name that my sword now carries. Destroyer." I answered. I sheathed my sword and walked into the baths. I chose a secluded bath and tested the warmth. It was warm enough for me and I stripped out of my armor and got into the bath. I washed myself and then I just floated there.

"Do not be angry with the name that you chose for yourself and your sword." A female voice said.

"Who's there?" I demanded standing up in the bath.

Lorelei was next to my armor cleaning it and I frowned. "It's only me." She replied.

"I'm not going to forget this conversation am I?" I asked sitting back down.

Lorelei looked guilty and apologetic. "I am sorry about that, but it was for your own good at the time. I shouldn't have told you what I had told you then." She said.

"Well you did and it's over and done with." I said closing my eyes. "Why are you here anyway?"

"I told you that I inhabit your moonstone." Lorelei said.

"Yes, I remember," I sighed. "But why are you here at this moment?"

"I don't get it?"

"When I'm naked?"

"Oh." I opened my eyes and saw that Lorelei was blushing. "Because I sensed that you were alone and I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"The Rim of Heaven is in trouble, the Gaurans have found a portal outside of this world and into the other and they are heading to the Rim!" Lorelei exclaimed.

"We've suspected as much, that's why we sent a legion to the Rim of Heaven to watch it," I informed her. "What's the big problem, what are their chances of finding it?"

"One hundred percent." Lorelei said softly.

That really got my attention. "What?" I demanded. "One hundred percent? That's their chances?"

Lorelei nodded and went back to work cleaning my armor. She finished and set it aside. "You must go there if the Warreans are to win." She said.

"How long until they reach the Rim of Heaven? When did the Gaurans leave? What's their force size?" I asked.

"The Gaurans have figured out a way to make a homunculus warrior," Lorelei answered. "They will reach the Rim of Heaven in one months time. I do not know when they left, my sisters do not know. As for their army size," Lorelei paused. "Forty legions."

My eyes widened and I stammered, "That…that…that's impossible! One hundred and twenty thousand men at the least!"

"That is correct." Lorelei said sadly.

"Look away so I can get out of the bath." I said.

"Fresh clothes are waiting by your armor." Lorelei said disappearing.

"Damn it!" I swore. "I need you so I can tell General Firestorm about this!"

I got out of the bath and dried off as quickly as I could. I put on the fresh set of clothes and the armor on after is as quickly as I could. Once I had done that, I grabbed my helm, sword, shield, and knife and ran out of the bathhouse. Xaldem was waiting for me outside and he looked surprised to see me out so early.

"Sir, you finished early." he said.

"Take me to General Firestorm." I commanded.

"Sir?"

"Just take me to him!"

"Yes, sir." Xaldem said.

I could only hope that I wouldn't be too late.


End file.
